Man and His Health 





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Book /* <f C 

Copyrights 



CiiEffilGHT DEPOSIR 



Man and His Health 



LIQUIDS 



BY 

WILLIAM ARMSTRONG FAIRBURN 




The Nation Press, Inc. 

20 Vesey Street 

New York 






Copyright, 1916 

By William Armstrong Fairburn 

All rights reserved 



/ 

nov 24 \m 



©CI.A446591 



TO MY CO-WORKERS 

whose loyal support and good fellowship 

are a continual source of inspiration 



Contents 



Water 1 

Milk 124 

Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, Chocolate — Caffeine . 316 

Oils . .352 

Fruit Juices 363 

Soups and Extracts 374 

Alcohol 380 



INTRODUCTION 

THIS volume on "Liquids" is the first com- 
pleted of three which the author hopes to 
write on the general subject — "Man and his 
Health." This work has been prepared with the 
hope that the scientific truths expounded may be 
not only of interest but also of benefit to the average 
reader. 



Health is necessary for happiness and there can 
be no well-being without the enjoyment of good 
health. Health is man's natural inheritance and if 
he lives in harmony with nature's laws he will con- 
tinue in health. Marcus Aurelius wrote, "Man 
must live in conformity with the laws of nature and 
nothing can happen to you that is not in accord- 
ance with nature's universal law." And Seneca 
enunciated the maxim, "Take nature for your 
guide, for so reason bids you and advises you; to 
live happily is to live naturally." 

There was a great deal of sane and healthful 
optimism in the philosophy of the ancient Greeks 
and Romans which proclaimed the nobility of 
humanity and inculcated the doctrine of a har- 
monious development of human nature, holding 
that beauty and health were associated with the per- 
fect human body and lasting pleasure the fruit of 
perfect human action. The Stoics maintained that 
happiness could not be found except by conforming 
life to nature. The same principle of a life in har- 
mony with nature led the Epicureans to the con- 



ii INTRODUCTION 

elusion that "pleasure is a natural good, that is to 
say, a condition conformable with nature." 

We are accustomed to speak of the "pessimistic 
philosophies" of the past few centuries, but in re- 
gard to our present life and our existence on this 
planet, has any of the many Schools of Philosophy 
been as pessimistic as the world's narrow and dwarf- 
ing conception of religion? Buddhism has been 
termed the Religion of Pessimism, but in regard to 
our physical existence on this earth, the teachings 
of Buddha are no more pessimistic than our erro- 
neous and warped interpretations of the teachings 
of Christ. Buddha said, "What wise man having 
regarded his own body, will not see in it an enemy?" 
And yet when a young prince, he asked of his father 
the gift "that he might always remain full of health 
and that he should be smitten by no disease." His 
father, the King, replied, "You ask me what is im- 
possible; in that my son I can do nothing." In the 
sermon of Buddha at Benares he said, "Birth is 
suffering, old age is suffering, disease is suffering 
and death is suffering." And we are told that when 
Buddha escaped from the magnificent palace built 
for him by his father, where he would be protected 
from the sorrows of the world, he saw life and re- 
flected thus, "Woe to youth threatened with old 
age! Woe to health, the prey of every kind of dis- 
ease ! Woe to the life of man which lasts but a little 
while!" And again, "Health is no more than the 
idle vision of a dream, while fear and disease are 
horrible realities. What wise man having seen the 
thing that life is, can still think of joy or of 
pleasure? Woe upon health which is assailed by so 
many maladies." The pessimism of Buddha was 
therefore founded on the fact that life is relatively 



INTRODUCTION iii 

short, that old age follows youth and that disease 
causes ill health; it was therefore pessimism in- 
spired solely by the restrictions and limitations of 
life. 

Before the dawn of the Christian Era, there were 
many philosophers who affirmed that man possessed 
a soul superior to the body which was but its 
temporary home, and Seneca, the Roman philoso- 
pher, a celebrated contemporary of Christ, main- 
tained that the soul must wrestle with the body for 
the body brings suffering, but the soul is above the 
body as divinity is above matter. Christ's teachings 
of immortality and the supremacy of soul over the 
physical body, unfortunately not being properly 
understood, resulted in a dualism which led to an 
outrageous depreciation of the human body. Chris- 
tians interpreting literally such sayings of Christ as, 
x 'Take no thought of your body" and ignoring the 
deeper spiritual significance of His teachings, de- 
clared war against human nature. All pleasures 
were forbidden, even the most innocent were 
thought vicious, and the body was shamefully 
abused by neglect and unnatural suppression. 
Metchnikoff has said, "The dualistic theory made 
such demands on its proselytes that these, absorbed 
in the salvation of their souls, sank from the physi- 
cal point of view to the level of wild beasts. Her- 
mits resorted to the lairs of animals, abandoned 
their clothing and went about naked with shaggy 
and disordered hair. In Mesopotamia and part of 
Syria there arose a sect of eaters of grass; these 
were people who had jio dwellings and who ate 
neither bread nor vegetables, but wandered on the 
liills and fed on the herbage. Cleanliness of the 
body was regarded as an indication of corruption 



iv INTRODUCTION 

of the soul, and among the most highly venerated of 
the saints were those who took no care of the body." 

For many centuries true religion and science have 
been combating such false views of life, but erro- 
neous ideas, unfortunately merged with Christi- 
anity, struck a deep root and many have persisted 
even to this day. Buckle, in the "History of Civili- 
zation in England," says that in the opinion of the 
Ministers of the Scotch Church of the 17th century 
there was nothing so surprising as that the earth 
could contain itself in the presence of that horrid 
spectacle, man, and that it did not gape to swallow 
him in his wickedness, for in the created universe 
there could be nothing so monstrous and so horrible 
as man. It has been preached that disease is the 
work of the devil. Martin Luther declared that 
disease was supernatural in origin, saying, "Behold 
a matter on which there is no room for doubt and 
that is that the plague, fevers and other diseases are 
the work of the devil. ,, The Black Death or Great 
Plague of the 14th century, which destroyed nearly 
one-third of the population of Europe, was con- 
sidered a visitation of the Divine Wrath. We now 
know that the horrible epidemic was not the mani- 
festation of the anger of God but was a scourge due 
to man's violation of natural laws. Contamina- 
tion by filth, and profanation of universal laws of 
hygiene and sanitation, have caused and continue to 
cause epidemics of disease, and as a knowledge of 
scientific hygiene has become disseminated among 
peoples and been practically applied, so have dis- 
eases become less frequent and less destructive. 

Humanity has been physically benefitted during 
the past ages just so far as science, "the daughter of 
knowledge," has investigated and solved the great 



INTRODUCTION v 

problems affecting mankind, and yet science, 
though wonderfully successful in probing for truth 
and teaching us the laws of nature, has been horribly 
abused. Rousseau expressed the opinion of many of 
the leaders of his day when he denounced science, 
saying: "Know, O people, that nature has desired 
to preserve you from science as a mother tries to 
snatch a dangerous weapon from the hands of her 
child; that the secrets which she has hidden from 
you are evils from which she would preserve you 
and that one of her greatest gifts, is the difficulty 
with which knowledge is acquired. Human beings 
are perverse but they would have been worse had 
they had the misfortune to be born learned men." 
Therefore it has been advocated that man should be 
"steeped in ignorance and superstition," but fortu- 
nately science has already done its work so well that 
only an insignificant small percentage of humanity 
would agree with Rousseau to-day, that to be learned 
would be unfortunate. Science and true religion 
are synonymous and Christ taught not the abuse 
but the care of the body. He considered the physi- 
cal body, as did many of the philosophers of His 
time, as the temple of the soul and as such it should 
be nurtured, fittingly cared for and maintained at 
the highest possible degree of efficiency, in order 
that it might perform its ordained functions in the 
world and be an instrument used in the progress 
and development of the world toward the great 
Cosmic Ideal. Christ did not starve His followers, 
he fed them. He did not abuse the physical body, 
but we are told that He healed the sick. His was 
the true religion of optimism, of hope, of faith and 
of love. If His teachings had been followed, the 
pessimism and absurdities of Christianity could 



vi INTRODUCTION 

never have existed and civilization would have ad- 
vanced far beyond the point now realized after 
nineteen centuries of the Christian Era, of which 
only a very small portion has been truly progres- 
sive. The world must learn that true religion de- 
mands the care of the body, that disease comes from 
the violation of nature's laws and that therefore 
physical weakness and suffering are not signs of 
spirituality but rather indications of deplorable 
error. 

The individual in this world cannot live to him- 
self. He is a social creature and his violation of 
universal laws may affect others seriously as well as 
himself. The habits and health of the individual 
may seriously affect the well-being of a community 
and therefore each individual has a responsibility 
that extends far beyond himself and his individual 
body. Darwin defined the term "general good" as 
the means "by which the greatest possible number of 
individuals can be reared in full vigor and health, 
with all their faculties perfect, under the conditions 
to which they are exposed." Man should see that 
the conditions of environment, both of himself and 
his fellow beings, are in general harmony with the 
laws of nature and if this is impossible, then science 
must teach how the evil effects of man's insurgency 
against nature may be overcome by the application 
of other laws and principles, the secrets of which 
have been wrestled from Mother Nature. Civiliza- 
tion carries with it an artificiality and an unnatural 
mode of life which must of necessity be counter- 
acted by science, as man advances in his subjugation 
of nature. If he fails to protect himself from the 
boomerang which his progress and development as 
an aggressive mental creature throw into space, he 



INTRODUCTION vii 

will gravitate toward failure and extermination in- 
stead of being hailed as a conqueror over all other 
things, animate and inanimate. 

There is an immutable law of the universe known 
as the Law of Cause and Effect. Modern religions 
recognize this law which was well expressed by Paul 
in his Epistle to the Galatians in the words, "What- 
soever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Dis- 
ease is the result of violation of nature's laws of 
health. It is the inevitable fruit of error with refer- 
ence to the maintenance and well-being of the body. 
Spirituality demands the full and efficient use and 
not the abuse of the physical body. The tenets of 
true religion demand that the body be nurtured and 
cared for, in order that it may fittingly house the 
soul and serve as an effective instrument of positive 
service in the world. Suicide is denounced by the 
Caucasian religions and codes of morals, but there is 
no difference, as far as the world is concerned, be- 
tween felonious self-murder and the killing of one's 
body by persistent abuse and violation of the laws 
of physical life, whether done voluntarily and in- 
tentionally, on the one hand, or in ignorance and 
indifference, on the other. If the human body is 
misused and maltreated deliberately, the line of 
conduct is synonymous with that of killing a human 
being with malice aforethought. Fortunately for 
humanity and the generations yet unborn, the virile 
religions of to-day are rapidly getting away from 
the belief that the soul alone must be honored while 
the body should be regarded as the vile source of 
evils, a dogma that naturally led to flagellations, 
torturings and maltreatment of the physical body. 
The early Christian's absolute asceticism which 
carried its followers far beyond the commendable 



viii INTRODUCTION 

and healthful practice of moderation and self- 
denial, into rigorous austerity and perversion, was 
not spirituality but fanaticism, not religion but irre- 
ligion, destitute of true piety; by its profanation 
of the great works of Cosmic Creation, it became a 
positive token of wickedness instead of an indica- 
tion of goodness. To abstain from needed food and 
drink and ravage the body by hunger and thirst, to 
fight the desire for recuperative sleep, to expose the 
body to the elements or irritate the skin with un- 
necessarily coarse clothing, to do penance by tortur- 
ing the body and inflicting harm by either neglect 
or positive torment, are analogous on the part of 
the Christians of Old to the Hindu fakirs who 
swing themselves on hooks, and the Dervishes and 
Assouans who beat in their skulls with clubs. Such 
abuse of nature's laws, under the false guise of re- 
ligion, led to the absolute violation of all laws of 
sanitation and hygiene, and for many centuries 
cleanliness was regarded as an indication of corrupt- 
ness. Many of the most highly venerated of the 
saints took no care of the physical body and 
Athanasius relates with approval that St. Anthony, 
the father of monks, never washed his feet. 

With the Renaissance came gradually the ap- 
preciation of the human body, and the ideals of the 
ancient Greeks impressed themselves not only on 
medieval art, but on science and religion. The 
pendulum has swung back from the extreme of 
fanatical error, but there is a tendency for it to 
swing beyond the point of equilibrium and poise, to 
another extreme of error under the false designation 
of "science." No religion can be scientific that 
ignores Cosmic Laws, and no matter how worthy 
and true many of the tenets of a so-called religion 



INTRODUCTION ix 

may be, there is a great element of danger and 
positive harm to the world, when any body of en- 
thusiasts, particularly when banded together as a 
religious sect, and with sufficient truth in their creed 
to prove many of their beliefs by works, deny the 
existence, attributes and functions of pathogenic 
organisms which the microscopist can see and study 
as we do the larger animal life, and also relegate 
all "matter" to a plane where it seems fitting to 
treat it with disdain, if not abhorrence. Matter is 
real and in some form or other, is as eternal as spirit. 
Nature's laws control matter, organic and inorganic, 
as well as every form of life and every substance 
which we endeavor to classify as animate or in- 
animate, even where there is extreme difficulty in 
drawing a line of demarcation between the two. 
The truly religious scientists should preach the 
superiority of spirit over matter, of the real man 
over his physical body, of truth and health over 
error and disease and of positive mental attributes 
over the negative characteristics of a vacillating or 
unanchored mind ; but it should go much further and 
teach man to courageously and fearlessly combat 
disease, error and evils by prevention and con- 
structive measures. 

To understand the laws of hygiene and sanitation 
is a religious duty, and to keep one's body in health 
so that it can function as an effective and expressive 
medium of the soul, is as necessary for the good of 
the individual, his progeny and human environ- 
ment, as is conformity with many phases of moral 
law. Man cannot be scientific in regard to the soul 
and that which pertains to the spirit, unless he is 
also scientific in that which relates to any or all of 
the multitudinous branches of creation and phases 



x INTRODUCTION 

of universal law. Cosmic laws are not changed by 
human petition. Much healing is done by right 
thinking and many cures wrought by medicine or 
religion are a tribute to the power of suggestion 
through faith. Right thinking augmented by right 
living — faith with works — is the unfailing rule of 
health and mankind will be both spiritually and 
physically benefitted when religion teaches that 
God is too great to perform miracles. He expresses 
His love to mankind through the medium of un- 
changing laws. 

It has been said that "scientific knowledge is so 
indispensible for moral conduct that ignorance must 
be placed among the most immoral acts." Metchni- 
koff has said that a mother who rears her child in 
defiance of good hygiene, from want of knowledge, 
is acting immorally toward her offspring, notwith- 
standing her feeling of sympathy. Parents who 
deliberately ignore the laws of nature in the bring- 
ing up of their offspring, or municipalities and 
states that violate universal laws in the care and 
protection of their citizens, are individually and 
jointly criminal in their wilful neglect of duty and 
obligation. One must have sympathy for, and strive 
to educate those who remain in ignorance of the 
laws of health and well-being, but bitter denuncia- 
tion should be meted out to those who have knowl- 
edge and apathetically refuse to use it, whether their 
inertia be attributed to indifference, inhumanity or 
bigoted religious fervor. One of the prime duties 
of any governing body in these enlightened days — 
no matter how small or how large and without re- 
' spect to the number of persons in the community, 
district or home — is to have knowledge of and con- 



INTRODUCTION xi 

form with the universal laws which regulate or 
affect human life and society. 

It has been truly said that if parents are to act 
morally with regard to their children, they must 
teach themselves properly. In place of myths and 
superstition, a mother must learn hygiene and the 
vital truths which relate to the rational rearing of 
children; ignorant parents must bring up children 
badly, notwithstanding all their good will and affec- 
tion. Metchnikoff says that "A doctor, however 
imbued with strong sympathy for his patients, could 
do them much harm if he had not the appropriate 
knowledge. Are not politicians open to reproach 
from the moral point of view that very often 
through ignorance, they do the very worst evil in 
public administration? With the progress of knowl- 
edge, moral conduct and useful conduct will be- 
come more and more closely identified." Any 
habit, act, tendency or thought that tends to pre- 
vent or mar the completion of the ideal cycle of 
human life, is immoral and when we see men and 
women wasting their health, strength and youth 
and thus making themselves inefficient for service 
and incapable of feeling the most complete and 
lasting pleasures in life, we are compelled to brand 
them as immoral no matter what their motives for 
body indifference and abuse may be. The scatter- 
ing, dispersing and waste of physical powers and 
human forces are dissipation whether the expendi- 
ture be along lines of over-work, neglect of bodily 
needs, sensuous appetite or intemperance in food or 
drink. 

No man lives to himself entirely isolated from 
his fellows, and no man can be a moral being unless 
he considers not only himself, his family, and 



xii INTRODUCTION 

progeny but also his neighbors, associates, fellow- 
beings and mankind in general. To be moral one 
must conform to duties and obligations which tend 
toward right living and such behavior as is for the 
good of all. How then can a man be considered 
moral and a good citizen who, through indifference 
or ignorance, contaminates a well or other source of 
water supply, who through violation of laws of 
hygiene and sanitation, sells polluted milk, who 
through transgression of the eternal laws of health 
and well-being, contracts an infectious or con- 
tagious disease and transmits it to his fellows, or 
who through ignorance, general apathy or perhaps 
fanaticism of an assumed indifference to matter, 
inspired by a so-called religion, acts as a carrier of 
disease to others? Science is the true friend of re- 
ligion and morality, whereas fanaticism and ignor- 
ance are their bitter enemies. Science makes true 
morality and altruism possible. How can we have 
a code of ethics or doctrines and rules of moral 
duties unless we understand the fundamental laws 
affecting life? 

Herbert Spencer insisted that the rules of con- 
duct to be of general application, must not require 
men to make too great sacrifices. Nevertheless he 
imagined that in the future the human race will be 
so improved that moral conduct will become in- 
stinctive. Every normal individual has an inborn 
instinct for the maintenance of life, and egoism or 
the love and protection of self is a well-known 
universal human quality — a virtue if not abused and 
kept in harmony and proper balance with other 
motives and ideals. To take care of one's health is 
an act for the good of the individual and is there- 
fore egoistic, but by taking care of one's health 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

even if selfishly actuated, one guards the health of 
others and his habits become moral in their opera- 
tion even if they cannot be considered truly altru- 
istic in spirit. 

Ignorance in regard to the laws of nature, of 
health and well-being is most deplorable and con- 
ducive to the baneful effects of error and disease. 
A degree of knowledge that promotes fear, per- 
sistent anxiety with undue mental harassment and 
solicitude is pernicious and deadly. The natural 
resistance of the human body to infection by patho- 
genic micro-organisms is materially lessened by 
psychological phenomena popularly described as 
worry or fear. To be subjected to a constant ap- 
prehension of evil and to unduly estimate the forces 
of error and minimize the power of good and 
normality, are probably more diabolical in their 
effect upon the human system than the outworkings 
of ignorance and indifference. Hence the religious 
belief that denies the existence or potency of an evil, 
may do untold good to an unbalanced mind ob- 
sessed with the horrors of it and which has become 
unable to relegate error to its proper subordinate 
place in life. Error and disease are negative; they 
follow in the wake of goodness and of health and in 
the eddy of human life, progress, health and well- 
being. Some people unfortunately seeing one small 
part or phase of life, obtain an untrue impression 
of the whole and confuse realism with reality; 
at times a little knowledge proves to be a dangerous 
thing to an untrained mind. Virtues are generally 
positive and vices negative, but there are many 
qualities or phases of human thought and action 
that have error on both extremes with virtue in the 
middle ground. Aristotle taught that each good 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

quality is a mean between two bad ones, i. e., 
courage between cowardice and f oolhardiness ; 
truthfulness between self -depreciation and boastful- 
ness. It is on this middle ground, the profitable and 
tenable mean, that we should stand in regard to 
health and sanitation, declining to be dwarfed by 
ignorance and indifference, on the one hand, or 
harassed and swept off our feet by psychological 
hysteria, fear and fretfulness, on the other. To be 
truly scientific is to be well-balanced, to give things 
their proper value, to see that the Cosmic creations 
and the laws affecting life are good and that con- 
formity to universal law makes for health, efficiency 
and happiness. 

Science teaches defensive as well as constructive 
measures and there are times when progress de- 
pends upon the thoroughness and efficacy of pro- 
tective means. The Panama Canal could never 
have been built if we had argued that there was no 
such disease as Yellow Fever, or if, fully ap- 
preciating the horrors of prevalent infections, we 
had taken no steps suggested by the laws of hygiene 
and sanitation, to overcome the cause of disease and 
make the Canal Belt inhabitable. True knowledge 
does not promote fear, for it furnishes the weapons 
to combat evil, disease and error. Emerson truly 
said, "Fear always springs from ignorance." The 
human mind that is indifferent to enlightenment 
concerning the phenomena of life is in a comatose 
and lethargic condition and is wilfully disregarding 
those psychological powers — the peculiar birth- 
right of man — which separates the human family 
from the lower animals. Apparent cognition in re- 
gard to one specific thing, phase of life or law of 
nature, which is accompanied by the ignoring of all 



INTRODUCTION xv 

greater universal laws, may excite expectations of 
evil and constant apprehension of impending 
danger and thus become indicative, not of knowl- 
edge but of ignorance. To be intelligent one must 
have a firm grasp upon the eternal principles affect- 
ing life and while refusing to ignore the baneful 
effects of error, must positively refuse to be swept 
from one's anchorage and magnify either the extent 
of its existence or its destructive power. Ignorance 
and fear are synonymous but cognizance of error 
which stimulates sane precautionary and corrective 
measures, not to mention aggressive constructive 
means, must not be confused with fear. To forge 
weapons, dig trenches, fortify and erect outposts, 
place sentries, ward off attacks and strive to subdue 
or annihilate an enemy, are not indicative of fear, 
but to retreat from the foe, to over-estimate his 
power, throw down arms, surrender without a fight 
or cowardly and precipitantly flee, suggest that fear 
which in every phase of life is deadly to success and 
well-being. Montaigne said, "The thing in the 
world I am most afraid of is fear," and Byron ex- 
presses the instability and elusiveness of this nega- 
tive quality when he wrote : 

"Alas, I scarcely now know what it is; 
And yet I fear it, fear I know not what." 

Fear is hysterical. It is the foe to mental poise 
and equanimity. It blackens or reddens the glasses 
through which we view life, grossly magnifies error 
and the power of evil, and wantonly minimizes the 
power and existence of the dominant, positive forces 
of good and truth. 

"Hysteria, fear and worry are the most common forms ex- 
pressive of the harmful power of error of individual mind con- 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

trol. There is an old story from the East which well illus- 
trates the destructive power of that form of negative self-sug- 
gestion, known as fear: 

" 'Where are you going?' asked the Pilgrim on meeting the 
plague one day 

" 'I am going to Bagdad to kill 5,000 people/ was the reply. 

"A few days later the same Pilgrim met the plague returning. 

" 'You told me that you were going to Bagdad to kill 5,000 
people,' said he, 'but, instead, you killed 50,000/ 

" 'No, you are wrong,' said the plague, 'I killed 5,000 people 
as I told you I would ; the others died of fright.' 

"It has been truly said that we have great power to attract 
the things we fear and to repel those of which we have no fear, 
because fear lowers the bodily resistance and courage raises it. 
It is also true, even though we are loath to admit it, that cer- 
tain conditions exist, or come to pass, primarily because we 
courted them by our own expectant attitude." — The Individual 
and Society. 

The world has advanced greatly in knowledge 
during the past few centuries, due to freedom of 
thought, religious liberty, the spread of democracy, 
the printing press, ease and rapidity of transporta- 
tion and the transmitting of news and thought. 
Superstition is gradually being eliminated and re- 
ligion is glorified, as in its essence it is found to be 
scientific and not emotional. The Great Plague ot 
the fourteenth century was combated by public 
church services; sacrifices and even flagellations 
took place in the hope of appeasing the wrath of the 
Almighty and thus averting the terrible malady. 
In the Graben of Vienna stands a large monument 
erected in the seventeenth century to commemorate 
the claimed interposition of Providence in staying 
another of the great epidemics of plague — after it 
had run its natural course. We now know that we 
cannot successfully combat any epidemic of disease 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

by prayer or scourging, for the universe operates by 
law and is not actuated by the vacillating whims of 
the Almighty. Science has taught us how to pre- 
vent the "Black Death" by conformity to the laws 
of sanitation and hygiene and whenever it occurs 
to-day in civilized lands, it is due to the violation of 
nature's laws and can be quickly confined, overcome 
and stamped out by conformity to elemental but 
fundamental laws of sanitation. New York is now 
in the throes of an epidemic of Infantile Paralysis, 
a horrible disease, easy to prevent but extremely 
difficult to control and curb when once it gains 
headway. At this time of writing the number of 
cases runs into the thousands and deaths are re- 
ported in about twenty-two per cent, of the cases, 
although the horror of the disease expresses itself 
most forcibly in the physical condition of the little 
ones who survive — often to a life of suffering. If 
ordinary rules for cleanliness had been obeyed, this 
terrible scourge could never have happened. The 
steps now being taken to cope with the epidemic 
are what science and common sense have suggested 
as maintained routine and are known as laws for the 
promotion of health and well-being. It is to be 
deplored that there is a natural tendency "to lock 
the stable door after the horse is stolen"; it is 
expressed in the fight to cure and control diseases 
of many kinds, including the national disgrace — 
typhoid — instead of preventing them by sane hy- 
gienic methods and sanitary conditions which should 
be demanded and enforced by government in the 
interest of all its citizens. It is encouraging to find 
that from many pulpits of our New York churches 
last Sunday the clergymen, instead of urging prayer 
and fasting to appease the wrath of God, beseeched 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

their congregations to practice extreme cleanliness, 
reading and explaining to them instructions pre- 
pared by the Department of Health in harmony 
with the laws of hygiene and sanitation. Many 
ministers attacked the proposition scientifically, ex- 
plaining the cause of disease, the evils which may 
arise from violation of the universal law of well- 
being and at the same time cautioned their audi- 
ences when being vigilant and careful, not to be un- 
necessarily alarmed, as fear might lead to a mental 
condition and erroneous protective practices which 
would seriously weaken the natural body defences 
and invite disease. The early Christian and Me- 
dieval conceptions that cleanliness and care of the 
body were opposed to spiritual: growth and well- 
being have been dissipated by science. John Wes- 
ley in the eighteenth century originated the saying 
which has since become famous, "Cleanliness is in- 
deed next to Godliness," and before him Bacon, in 
"Advancement of Learning," said that cleanliness 
of body proceeded "from a due reverence to God, 
to society and to ourselves." 

As knowledge of bacterial life has increased, 
science has been enabled to chart general lines of 
action which, if religiously followed, will prevent 
epidemics of disease, and in many cases scientific re- 
search has enlightened us in regard to efficient neu- 
tralizing methods which, under certain conditions, 
will successfully cope with noxious micro-organisms 
and therefore assist humanity in more surely or rap- 
idly overcoming error and curing disease. The 
normal healthy body is generally well fortified 
against ordinary harmful bacteria, but if man's 
actions tend to upset the harmony of environment 
and ignore the fundamental laws of nature and 



INTRODUCTION xix 

health, he automatically increases the potency of 
forces which seem to be arraigned against him. He 
relatively lessens his own inherent strength of resist- 
ance and will most probably succumb to the ravages 
of disease and the baneful effects of error or 
malicious insurgency, unless science can suggest to 
him an antidote to maintain proper balance amidst 
the new conditions and overcome the retributive 
effects of reactive forces which throughout nature 
always seem to be augmented and rise up in tre- 
mendous power with aggressive punitive intent 
whenever Nature's laws are deliberately or uncon- 
sciously violated. 

The great work of the scientist and physician is 
to prevent disease rather than to cure it. Moreover, 
the human body is so constituted that processes of 
neutralization, if health is to be maintained, should 
be performed outside of and not within the human 
body. If a water supply is contaminated by the 
waste matter from segregated human habitations 
and manufacturing establishments, science dictates 
that such pollution should be overcome by the de- 
struction and elimination of harmful bacteria, be- 
fore the water is taken into the human system and 
not afterwards. The body should be protected not 
only from pathogenic germs, but from all harmful 
substances, whether taken unconsciously in food and 
drink or as remedial measures to neutralize and 
overcome the noxious action of injurious matter and 
micro-organisms. Medicine and drugs may at 
times become necessary, but it is always better to 
have poisons act on poisons outside of the highly 
sensitive human body. The highest duty of the 
medical profession should be to prevent disease, to 
harmonize the individual to his environment and 



xx INTRODUCTION 

protect mankind from any evil which may become 
malignant because of man's violation of nature's 
laws. If man deliberately abuses his physical body, 
science may help him to neutralize the bad effects of 
his error for a time, but medicine cannot save him 
from the retributive action of merciless forces which 
operate in harmony with immutable laws; both 
the error of the original wrongdoing and the effect 
wrought by believedly curative, palliative or neu- 
tralizing medical agents act to maltreat and outrage 
the human body, lessen efficiency, ignore health and 
well-being and shorten life. To enjoy good health 
one should diet in harmony with his mode of life 
and expenditure of physical effort, live a natural 
life in so far as artificial civilization will permit, 
protect himself from the errors resulting from hu- 
man segregation and man's aggressive subjugation 
of nature, cultivate knowledge, but abolish all fear 
of evil and harmful forces and keep from the highly 
organized and sensitive nervous body all noxious 
substances, subjecting the physical body just as far 
as modern life will permit, only to those influences 
which have been sanctioned by nature and created 
or the human body's use since time immemorial. 

The world abounds today with rabid health fad- 
dists, diet fanatics, exercise cranks and bigoted ad- 
vocates of systems, panaceas and cure-alls. There 
is only one law of health and that is the most un- 
popular law of Cause and Effect — if one dances one 
must pay the piper. To obtain or maintain health 
one must live naturally, avoid the things that are 
harmful and be moderate in all things. We are 
inundated today with a perfect deluge of matter re- 
garding health, which masquerades under the false 
guise of science, but which is as opposed to science 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

as mythology is to pathology and superstition to re- 
ligion. A discourse recently submitted to a long- 
suffering public on the "Philosophy" of Health 
criticised the pasteurization of milk and ridiculed 
the germ theory, but most inconsistently advocated 
the boiling of all drinking water. There are schools 
of "higher thought" which preach the unreality of 
matter and yet worship it in fact by the practice of 
Epicurism and the love of wealth. A noted vilifier 
of the medical profession has written much against 
the Modern School of Physicians. Not content to 
attack self-evident errors, he maintains that their 
entire practice is founded on error, and after de- 
nouncing the use of medicine at all times, and after 
obtaining a large enthusiastic following, he later, 
with the object of increasing his own income, is con- 
strained to sell at a high price a panacea of sup- 
posedly wonderful power, which he claims is not 
medicine, although it looks like it, is used as medi- 
cine and apparently acts like it. Perhaps this ad- 
vocate of rational healing has found by experience 
that the full power of suggestion can seldom be 
obtained unless the patient has some definite act to 
perform or some tablet to take. 

The medical profession is a most worthy one and 
the world owes much to the honorable followers of 
a calling whose prime duty in life is to strive to 
heal the sick, ameliorate human suffering and over- 
come disease. There are good and bad doctors in 
the world just as there are good and bad lawyers, 
engineers and mechanics. The often supposedly 
talismanic letters M. D. are not a badge of learning, 
morals or honor, but the medical profession, with all 
its shortcomings, faddism and, at times, advocacy of 
error, compares favorably with any other profession, 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

even including the ministry. The medical profes- 
sion, by the sure-working law of progress and evo- 
lution, is destined to be a great power for good in 
the world, for it will be organized before long to 
prevent disease, to create hygienic and sanitary con- 
ditions wherever man dwells, and its great work in 
the world will be to teach men, women and children 
the true science of the universe — the laws of health 
and how to live efficiently, sanely and happily. The 
advance in the art of surgery has proven a great 
boon to humanity, and skilled surgeons today are 
performing anatomical operations and correcting 
errors in the human mechanism caused by violent 
accidents or erroneous living ; they are saving lives 
and overcoming defects which would be beyond 
hope of curing by corrective and natural methods. 
Whereas the knife should never be used except as 
a last resort, there are many occasions when the 
surgeon stands between a life pregnant with capa- 
bilities of useful service and — as far as the world 
and our present existence is concerned — oblivion. 
Whereas within the pages of this book there may ap- 
pear at times criticism of the medical profession, it 
must be understood that the author has in mnd those 
of the profession who have been and are abusing the 
dignity of their calling. At no time has he lost 
sight of the splendid, self-sacrificing, scientific and 
noble men in the profession or of their laudable 
ideals. Science and humanity will ultimately com- 
bine to make the profession of the physician one of 
the noblest, if not the noblest, of all callings, for, 
as the name implies, it should teach men to live 
according to the laws of nature. 

The scientist and competent physician suffer 
much from the ignorance of the laity in life, and no 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

ignorance — not even that of quackery and charla- 
tanry — is as deadly to progress and well-being as 
that of a self-satisfied, bigoted advocate of a health 
system, whether it be organized as a religion or 
merely as an unscientific commercialized belief. It 
is said that a New England woman had a shallow 
surface well of water near her home, in close prox- 
imity to an old-fashioned outdoor domestic privy. 
A resident physician, being convinced that the 
water of the well was contaminated by human ex- 
creta, urged the closing up of the well and was 
promptly met with indignant antagonism. After 
many futile attempts to convince the owner of the 
property that the polluted water of the well was a 
menace to the health and well-being of the com- 
munity, the physician poured mineral oil into the 
privy and was later sued by the wrathful owner for 
ruining the well and defiling her water supply. As 
long as the water tasted all right the woman was 
convinced of its purity, refusing to believe that 
sewage in water does not taste badly, but when the 
doctor proved his theory of pollution with a com- 
paratively harmless oil, which could be promptly 
detected by the human palate, the owner of the well 
forgot the doctrines of the unreality of matter and 
the superiority of the soul and vigorously demanded 
redress in the courts for a meritorious act of educa- 
tion which should have carried conviction to the 
mind of any normal unbiased person, whether 
intelligent or ignorant. 

The laws of nature are permanent and unalter- 
able, and if one is to enjoy health, he must live in 
harmony with the great natural laws. Nature and 
religion are not opposed terms, for as Young said. 
"The course of nature is the art of God." There 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

is no short-cut to health, no sect or talismanic belief 
that can hurdle barriers raised by one's deliberate 
or nescient violation of physical laws. Pope said 
that a real man is he who is 

"Slave of no sect, who takes no private road, 
But looks through nature, up to nature's God." 

And Thomson said that man enriched with the 
knowledge of nature's works is lifted to heaven. 

To be truly religious or positively efficient in life, 
man must be in harmony with eternal truth and 
therefore must be scientific. He will strive to pos- 
sess knowledge of ultimate principles and causes 
and learn the operation of general laws. To be 
healthy and sound in mind, body and soul, man 
must conform with those universal laws which make 
for harmony with nature and Cosmic forces. These 
eternal principles are substantially and fittingly 
expressed by sane, right living; they promote that 
psychological and physical condition known as hap- 
piness, make for the enjoyment of health in all its 
fullness and thus fortify man to perform his work 
in the world acceptably and efficiently. 

Short Hills, W. A. F. 

New Jersey, 

August 1, 1916. 



WATER 

THE most important natural agencies for the 
preservation of health are pure water, pure 
air, sunlight, exercise and proper diet. The 
first three are furnished by Mother Nature "with- 
out money and without price," the fourth simply 
requires a slight exertion of the will power, and the 
last is obtainable by any man who is willing to put 
to use his capabilities and exercise will power, 
tempered with intelligence. Water is the original 
source of all animal life ; from it the earliest species 
were evolved and it continues to be the principal 
constituent of our bodies, one of the most important 
factors in sustaining existence, and the largest item 
in the income of the human body. Water is the 
only substance known that possesses the power of 
permeating every cell and fibre of the living organ- 
ism without causing disturbance or irritation. It 
is an essential part of all the tissues and its per- 
centage in their make-up cannot be materially re- 
duced while life continues. 

Water is the principal agent in the elimination of 
waste material and posions from the body ; it is the 
flushing medium and the carrier, accelerator or 
vehicle of excretion used by what may be termed 
the human sewage system. Water acts to dilute the 
food so that the nutrient content can be absorbed 
from the digestive tract ; its presence in the blood is 
essential both to carry food to the tissues and to 



2 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

carry the waste matter away from the tissues; it is 
also needed to keep the blood pressure and the heart 
in a normal condition. When water evaporates 
from the body, it often provides for the removal of 
heat which would otherwise accumulate in the body 
to its detriment. When the discharge of water is 
abnormal the feeling of thirst is aroused and sug- 
gests a prompt renewal of the stored supply neces- 
sary for a state of healthful equilibrium. The bodily 
organs demand water and if they do not receive it 
of proper purity and in required quantity, they do 
their work poorly, waste products accumulate and 
putrefy, the blood becomes vitiated, the breath foul 
and disease germs find a fertile soil. 

Water in Relation to the Human System 

Sohn says that the human body consists of from 
55 to 71 per cent, of water by weight. Rubner gives 
the percentage as 63 and other authorities have 
mentioned from 60 to 75.3 per cent. The fluids of 
the body are all extremely aqueous and the tissues 
so thoroughly permeated by liquid that they may be 
said to be bathed in water. The percentage of 
water in body fluids and tissues, etc., is generally 
as follows: 



Gastric Juices 




99.5 per cent. 


Saliva 




99.5 " " 


Perspiration 




98 to 99 " " 


Aqueous humor of 


eye 


98 " " 


Blood plasma 




90 " " 


Muscles 




70 to 75 " " 


Brain and nerves 




64 to 84 " " 


Bones 




10 to 30 " " 



Aside from the fluid drunk, of which the average 
healthy man takes about 3% pints, or 3% to 4 lbs. 



WATER 



3 



daily, a considerable amount of water is taken un- 
consciously with food, for water exists in almost all 
of our various articles of food as the following table 
will show. 





per cent. 




per cent. 




water 




water 


Sirloin steak 


61.9 


Wheat flour 


13.8 


Ribs of beef 


57.0 


White bread 


35.0 


Breast of veal 


68.2 


Brown bread 


43.6 


Leg of lamb 


686 


Apple pie 


425 


Pork tenderloin 


66.5 


Asparagus 


94.0 


Smoked ham 


39.8 


String beans 


83.0 


Smoked bacon 


20.2 


Cabbage 


91.5 


Chicken broiler 


69.7 


Celery 


94.5 


Blue fish 


78.5 


Cucumbers 


95.4 


Cod 


82.6 


Lettuce 


94.7 


Oysters 


86.9 


Potatoes 


78.3 


Eggs 


73.7 


Apples — edible — 


84.6 


Butter 


11.0 


Bananas " 


75.3 


Pale American Cheese 31.6 


Grapes 


58.0 


Milk 


87.0 


Oranges " 


86.9 


Cream 


74.0 


Lemons " 


89.3 



Coles-Finch has said that if we wish to keep in 
health, we must consume about 1/25 of our own 
weight of water — all told — per day. Other authori- 
ties state that a healthy adult requires from 4% to 
7 lbs. of water daily for the process of nutrition 
with proper aqueous equilibrium and about 35 per 
cent, of this amount is usually contained in foods, 
the remainder being taken in the form of liquids. 
In addition to the water that we drink and take 
with our food, without being aware of it, a certain 
quantity of water is formed within us by combustion 
in the process of digestion. Water is the natural 
beverage for the maintenance of life and health and 
is one of the prime necessities of life. Man can 



4 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

subsist for much longer periods of time without food 
than without water. Fresh wholesome water is a 
fine tonic, a carrier and body builder; it is one of 
the best natural solvents and when taken in proper 
quantity and at the proper time, tends to wash im- 
purities out of the body. 

"Till taught by pain, 
Men really know not what good water's worth." 

Byron- 

The Human Body Like a Steam Boiler 

Water as fed to the body may be considered 
analogous to feed water delivered to a steam boiler. 
Steam is gaseous water; blood plasma which flows 
through the circulatory pipes of the human body is 
90.15 per cent, water. Boiler feed water must be 
relatively pure and free from deleterious matter or 
the boiler structure soon deteriorates, corrodes and 
wears away. Drinking water fed to the human 
system must be comparatively pure, fresh and 
wholesome, if the bodily health is to be maintained ; 
but as steam and power cannot be generated in a 
boiler without water, neither can the human machine 
perform its functions, create power or exist without 
water. Feed water is usually heated before it is 
fed into a boiler. No engineer would cool or ice 
his feed water before delivering it to the boiler 
because of the danger to the structure and positive 
thermal inefficiency. Tepid water is not palatable, 
but natural, cool spring or deep well water is. 
Why ice nature's cool water and why feed ice water 
to the human body when one would never think of 
doing such a pernicious thing to a boiler made by 
human hands? Very cold water swallowed rapidly 
chills the mucous membrane of the stomach and re- 



WATER 5 

tards the progress of gastric secretion. Digestion 
itself is also slowed if the contents of the stomach 
are cooled, just as steam cannot be raised as quickly 
with cold feed water as with warm feed water. 
Hot water under certain conditions is healthful and 
medicinal. Jaworski has shown that, as a rule, hot 
water disappears from the stomach much more 
rapidly than cold water. In some persons, how- 
ever, much harm may be done by the use of exces- 
sively hot drinks, as well as by the use of iced 
drinks. Boas states that many stomach troubles are 
caused by the habitual use of either very hot or very 
cold drinks. 

Wholesome water with its natural coolness is 
healthful and palatable, but the use of artificially 
cooled ice- water, now quite common, is an injurious 
habit and is opposed to the laws of nature and 
health. 

The Law of Right Drinking 

To "drink right" is a most important law of 
physical well-being. Sheldon has divided the law 
into five phases: 



First, 


What to drink, 


Second, 


When to drink, 


Third, 


How much to drink, 


Fourth, 


How to drink, 


Fifth, 


What not to drink. 



The fifth is the negative of the first, but needs to 
be emphasized and was apparently added to permit 
forceful, definite exceptions, and also because of the 
psychological power of specific admonition. If a 
person lived a normal, natural life, natural hunger 
would suggest the time to eat and natural thirst the 



6 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

time to drink, but very few of us live a natural life. 
Bad drinking habits generally go hand in glove with 
bad eating habits and one merely serves to intensify 
the error of the other. A few fundamental and 
elemental facts in regard to drinking should be 
kept in mind. 

1. Water or any other liquid was never intended 
to flush food from the mouth into the stomach. The 
saliva of the mouth should be given an opportunity 
to commence the process of digestion and lubricate 
the food for passage into the stomach. 

2. Water or any other liquid is opposing nature 
if it is used to soften food and prepare it for quick 
entrance to the stomach, thus preventing the opera- 
tion of nature's process of mastication. 

3. Free water drinking is not good for every one. 
Intelligent water drinking is good for all. The 
extent of healthful water drinking depends abso- 
lutely upon the individual — there are no universal 
laws for there is no uniform standard of health, 
physical similarity or conformity to a mode of life. 
Excess of water should be avoided by the very 
feeble, those suffering from weak kidneys, heart 
trouble or dropsy. Free water drinking for a 
healthy person is good when the stomach is empty 
and particularly on arising in the morning, but free 
water drinking for any person at meals is detri- 
mental to health and for many people much water 
at meals is constipating, although much water be- 
tween meals or on an empty stomach has an oppo- 
site tendency. A moderate amount of cool fresh 
water — »not iced — at meals is not injurious to health 
and is often beneficial, if the water is taken when the 
mouth is absolutely empty of food. 

4. A person in average health in an average 



WATER 7 

climate and engaged in moderate work should 
drink 1% to 2 quarts of water daily, but the amount 
depends upon a man's work and the environment in 
which he is placed. A man engaged in a sedentary 
occupation, in a moist temperate climate, does not 
need half the water that a man requires working 
hard outdoors in an atmosphere of high tempera- 
ture and sunshine. A good rule for the average 
person is to take one or two glasses of pure water 
upon arising, one glass or more after two-thirds of 
the time between breakfast and the mid-day meal 
has elapsed; one glass or more after two-thirds of 
the time between the mid-day and evening meal has 
elapsed and a glass immediately before retiring, 
drinking with positive moderation at all meals. 

5. Drink only fresh water that you know to be 
wholesome and healthful. If in doubt boil your 
drinking water which will kill any bacteria or germs 
present and then shake it up, liven and aerate it as 
much as is feasible to make it palatable. An au- 
thority on preventable diseases has said that 85 per 
cent, of the cases of typhoid fever in the country are 
due to drinking impure water. It is reported that 
300,000 people each year, through drinking impure 
water, enlist under the typhoid banner. Fisher and 
Fisk say "where hygienic water has been used, a very 
large proportion of the deaths from typhoid has been 
eliminated. Where this is not feasible it is de- 
sirable to use chlorinated lime (ordinary bleaching 
powder) in drinking water (one part to 200,000 — 
shake up and leave several minutes). If water of 
doubtful quality has to be drunk, it should be at the 
middle or end of a meal when the healthy stomach 
contains plenty of gastric juice which, to a limited 
extent, has the power to kill germs." Impure water 



8 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

as well as ice-cold water causes stomach and bowel 
troubles. 

6. Water, whether cold or cool, should not be 
rapidly gulped down, but should be taken slowly 
and with rational deliberateness. Many of the ill- 
nesses and prostrations prevalent in hot weather 
are the result of rapidly drinking and gulping down 
great quantities of very cold water. Sheldon ad- 
vises drinking water with accompanied auto-sug- 
gestion and he presents this thought — "This water 
is one of the life essentials. It clears my system 
and carries away waste products. It increases the 
secretions. I am drinking the right drink and 
thinking the right thoughts. I feel good, bright, 
cheerful and happy." 

7. Water is nature's drink. Spring and deep 
well waters, unless polluted by man and his works, 
are almost invariably pure and healthful, for the 
earth is a filter and cleanses the water of any im- 
purities which it may hold as it seeps downward 
through the soil. Brook water or any thin film of 
surface water in motion is purified by the actinic 
rays of sunlight. River water is generally pure 
and healthful unless contaminated by man with 
sewage, manufacturing waste, etc. 

Water the Basis of ail Beverages 

Purinton says, "Water is the best tonic known 
and the saloons persist largely because they sell 
barrels of water in the guise of something else. 
While the habit of 'treating' is absurd and often 
harmful, it is based on a generous impulse and 
fundamental need — that of supplying water in a 
palatable, attractive form." Purinton further says 
that "in modern civilization, real water costs real 



WATER 9 

money. Bottled water is bottled health.'' Real 
water is as free as real air and both are easy to 
obtain by intelligent effort. Some bottled waters 
are excellent, pure and invigorating, but there are 
some instances on record where bottled waters have 
been bottled disease. If water is pure and good, 
bottling it adds to its natural radius of use and 
benefit. If water is bad, bottling it increases its 
power for ill, and if bad water is bottled and labelled 
good, the evil is intensified beyond human estimate 
or knowledge. Purinton advocates sarsaparilla, 
celery tonic or ginger ale — which, he adds "are 
wholesome varieties of doctored water." Dr. Tol- 
man is nearer the truth when he says that "most of 
the cheap ginger ale, sarsaparilla and such bever- 
ages contain too much sugar and in addition are 
adulterated and positively harmful." 

"Soft Drink" Impurities 

It is a question whether Soda Fountains or Beer 
Gardens are the more harmful in a community. 
The Soda Fountain generally abounds with arti- 
ficial coloring matter, fake fruit juices, drugged 
drinks and water charged with gas. The principle 
of its service to the public, no matter how honorable 
and ethical its promoters and owners may be, can 
by no stretch of the imagination be considered 
hygienic or conducive to health. Soft drinks have 
as a base, soda water, which contains no soda but 
carbon dioxide, and the general objectionable 
features of these drinks are saccharin, a coal-tar 
drug product, saponin, a "heading" ingredient 
which is a poison that tends to destroy the red cor- 
puscles of the blood, multitudes of adulterants, 
some quite noxious, stimulating or narcotical drugs 



10 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

and poisons and the possibilities that such drinks 
contain bacteria due to lack of sanitary and hygienic 
conditions surrounding manufacture, bottling or 
handling. The factory-made lemonade is usually 
carbonic acid water, cheap syrup, tartaric acid and 
oil of lemon. Ginger beer is generally similar with 
the addition of a little essence of ginger, or cheap 
substitute for it. Orange juice as served over the 
counter, and even in many hotels and trains, is 
almost entirely artificial and the gases of orange 
peel and lemon peel are often the base of these fruit 
juices; the injurious action of such matter in the 
human stomach has kept many a man from bene- 
fiting from real fresh fruit juices with their in- 
vigorating tonic effect when properly used. Many 
soft drinks are positively injurious, some are "habit- 
forming" and many so-called food drinks encourage 
one to dietetic foolishness. Doctored waters, home- 
made or the product of hygienic factories, operat- 
ing with so-called "pure food" formulae, may please 
the palate, feed water to the system and be gen- 
erally harmless, but nature is always doctored to the 
detriment of him who uses the concoction. Man 
cannot improve on nature but he can, of course, so 
abuse his sense of taste that nature's product be- 
comes displeasing and distasteful to him ; this is but 
one of many instances indicative of the degenera- 
tion of man through an artificialness which we 
proudly call "civilization." Doctored waters or 
drugged drinks may be used at times in moderation 
and pathologically to advantage, but nature is the 
true medicine of life and if the body functions in 
harmony with nature, no medicine of any kind other 
than wholesome water, pure air, sunlight, exercise 
and proper adaptable food will be needed. 



WATER 11 

Water Necessary for Bodily Functions 

We can very materially vary our practice of 
water-drinking without experiencing pronounced 
effects, and as water is known to be a cleanser and 
carrier, the common modern teaching is to the effect 
that one can hardly drink too much water, unless it 
be at meal times. The beneficial results supposed 
to accrue from free water drinking are assumed to 
include the avoidance of constipation and the 
elimination of dissolved waste by the kidneys and 
possibly by the liver. Water is practically unab- 
sorbed by the stomach and in a normal healthy 
person it quickly passes into the intestines, % to 1 
pint of water leaving the average stomach in about 
half an hour. Water fed to the body imbibes salt 
from the food, mucus or from the superficial cells 
of the alimentary tract or takes up the salt which is 
formed in the upper chamber of the intestines by 
the neutralization of the hydrochloric acid of the 
gastric juice. Hence water becomes a salt solution 
and instead of passing on through the intestines to 
the rectum, is absorbed. When water is ingested 
therefore, it does not normally pass out with the 
feces; and under ordinary conditions of absorp- 
tion, no matter how much is drunk, it does not of 
itself produce a movement of the bowels but leads 
to increased urination. It is quite possible, how- 
ever, that bowel functions are assisted by the use of 
water, for if the contents of the upper intestines 
are well supplied with liquid, the forward movement 
of the feces must of necessity be greatly facilitated. 
Water is diuretic and its elimination tends to carry 
from the body certain dissolved substances, espe- 
cially urea, sulphates and phosphates. Hill main- 
tains that water washes out the urea stored in the 



12 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

tissues and does not provoke increased destruction 
of tissue protein, whereas, Hawk asserts that 
copious water drinking results not only in a removal 
of stored-up urea but also in increased protein de- 
struction. 

Excessive water drinking is generally and most 
rightly considered injurious to persons with weak 
kidneys, but it is quite possible that at times the 
duties of the kidneys may be lightened by giving 
them more water to excrete. It is quite right to 
judge the work of a gland by the volume of its out- 
put, but concentration is an all important factor 
which puts the tubules of the kidneys to the severest 
test, and these delicate organs act at the greatest 
disadvantage when required to excrete a maximum 
of solids in a minimum of water. Stiles says, "The 
urine almost always has a concentration much 
higher than that of the blood from which it is de- 
rived and it is fair to assume that the separation of 
the two fluids would be much easier if the difference 
of concentration could be lessened. Water drink- 
ing is the natural way to secure this result." 

Effect of Too Much Water 

The continued use of large quantities of drinking 
water, in excess of the body requirements, would 
soon tend to impair the functions of the various 
organs by materially increasing the volume of blood 
in circulation, thus overloading the heart and em- 
barrassing its action, lessening the activity of the 
digestive juices and causing indigestion which is 
often the first factor of a series of errors which may 
ultimately lead to pronounced faulty metabolism 
and mal-nutrition. 

The rule for water drinking is practically the 
same as eating and can be expressed as — sufficient, 



WATER 13 

but not too much. In eating, however, the average 
person has a tendency to err by excess ; in drinking 
there is a pronounced disposition and apparently 
inherent proneness to err the other way. The ad- 
vocates of free water drinking are striving to over- 
come the natural tendency of the average person to 
rob the body of nature's liquid necessary for health. 
The tremendous consumption of coffee, tea and 
cocoa, containing injurious drugs, has a somewhat 
compensating side, when we consider that water is 
the principal constituent and that in the majority 
of cases the water has been made sterile by boiling. 
The same general thought applies to many other 
honestly-made soft and mild alcoholic drinks, for 
they apparently lead people to take much more 
water than they would otherwise and many of these 
waters have been sterilized in the manufacture of 
the beverage. 

Proper Water Balance 

Like the plant, man cannot live without water. 
Lorand has said, "A plant may have at its disposal 
ever so much of the nutritive salts without which it 
cannot live, but they are of no use to it unless it 
receives water, be this rain-water or dew or that 
provided by the helping hand of man ; water is abso- 
lutely required to bring these salts into solution so 
that they may be absorbed by the roots. Man, like- 
wise would not be able to assimilate his food without 
water since it dissolves the nutritive substances that 
they may be taken up by his body." Water is the 
blood-carrier of the dissolved nutritive substances 
and salts which feed the body tissues. For health 
and necessary "water balance" the blood should not 
become too thickened or too dilute. The excessive 



14 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

intake of liquids tends toward blood dilution; the 
persistent or excessive use of laxatives and cathar- 
tics and abnormal physical conditions, such as 
copious diarrhoea, also an insufficient consumption 
of liquid, cause blood inspissation which fortunately 
can be quickly overcome if the body is supplied with 
normal quantities of water. Persons with a weak 
heart and hardened blood vessels (arteriosclerosis) 
or diseased kidneys should guard against the sudden 
overloading of the system with liquid, and in severe 
acute cases, it may be advisable to feed the system 
with its required water in the form of fruit, green 
vegetables and small sips of water, in order that the 
water may be absorbed gradually without undue 
taxation of the weakened vessels and organs. The 
opinion is commonly held that free water drinking 
favors increase of bodily weight. To a limited ex- 
tent such increase of weight may result from actual 
retention of water, but as has been clearly demon- 
strated by Von Noorden, water-drinking of itself 
never causes the production of fat. Stout people 
have a tendency, however, to drink a great deal of 
liquid, but this is in part a consequence rather than 
a cause of their condition. As Stiles has pointed 
out "subcutaneous fat is a hindrance to the escape 
of heat from the body and its presence during warm 
weather necessitates an unusual amount of perspi- 
ration. This in turn produces thirst." 

Water With Meals 

Liquids should not be debarred from meals. A 
little hot soup (85 to 97 per cent, of water content, 
according to U. S. Government investigations) at 
the commencement of a meal is a healthful, in- 
vigorating and stimulating "cocktail" for a normal 



WATER 15 

person. Abstinence from direct water intake with 
solid food favors digestion and the normal action of 
the digestive juices which commences with the im- 
portant flow of saliva in the mouth. Such a prac- 
tice naturally causes slower eating and slower eat- 
ing tends toward health and the satisfaction of the 
appetite with a smaller actual intake. Gormandiz- 
ing will not exist if liquids are debarred from the 
mouth while food is being masticated and is in 
passage to the stomach. Gastric juices within the 
stomach are not materially affected by water; they 
are naturally diluted but act on a larger volume of 
the mixture. Hawk, of the University of Illinois, 
has shown that the proper drinking of water with 
meals is conducive to health and efficient digestion. 
He has shown that the fecal nitrogen is lower when 
water is taken in good quantity as compared with 
liquid abstinence. This fact, he holds, indicates 
more complete digestion and more thorough ab- 
sorption. 

Hot Water as a Therapeutic Agent 

Hot water has been termed the "natural scav- 
enger," and Tyrrell says, "As a therapeutic agent 
it is almost without a peer. Chemists are burning 
the midnight oil in their laboratories searching for 
new weapons with which to fight sepsis, while hot 
boiled water which is one of the best antiseptics in 
existence is almost ignored." Hot water used oc- 
casionally and when needed as a stomach bath or 
an intestinal bath, will perform beneficial functions 
harmlessly in overcoming the effects of unnatural 
living that no medicine can ever accomplish with 
its poisoning and deleterious after effects. The 
use of a proper diet and a sufficient quantity of 



16 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

wholesome water taken at the proper time, will 
prevent stomach trouble and constipation, but if 
these disorders occur through ignorance or de- 
liberate violation of nature's laws for the body, it is 
far better to use hot water as an internal bath and 
wash away putrid matter, rather than resort to the 
use of drugs which do their work only in part and 
that unnaturally. Drugs can never cure constipa- 
tion, but intelligent diet and the proper use of 
wholesome drinking-water will. At times the use 
of water containing a large proportion of lime salts 
may tend to produce costiveness, but this can be 
overcome by a diet containing fruit, coarse bread, 
green and watery vegetables with little starch and 
much fibre, or by the boiling of the water thus 
robbing it of its temporary hardness. Bowers has 
said that constipation is caused by too much of the 
wrong kind of food; lack of proper nerve and 
muscle tone and "not enough soft water or an 
excess of the other kind" (hard water). The use 
of enemas or preferably internal hot water baths 
with sterilized water, is far better than any form of 
drugs taken into the stomach which performs its 
work by poisoning the system and robbing the blood 
of much water. Constipation is a serious ailment 
and should not be lightly treated, but the cure lies 
in sane eating, drinking and living ; the too frequent 
use of enemas and internal water baths may tend 
to lower the muscle tone of the main colon. Water 
injected into the rectum should be sterilized, for 
noxious pathogenic bacilli may in this manner be 
permitted to enter the system without passing 
through the protective stomach acids which tend to 
weaken or make the majority of bacteria taken with 
food and water innocuous. Water is not only one 



WATER 17 

of the prime necessities of life, but unfortunately 
in its relation to preventable disease, it may be 
ranked next, if not indeed equal, to air in import- 
ance. Too much care cannot, therefore, be exer- 
cised in the selection, preparation and use of water 
for drinking purposes or for internal baths. 

Water and the Elements in Ancient Lore 

Certain ancient philosophers maintained that one 
of the only four elements known in their day (i. e., 
fire, air, earth and water) was the origin of all 
things. Thus Thales held that water, Anaximander 
air and Heraclitus fire was the original principal. 
The four elements of the ancients were not con- 
sidered as single substances, as is generally sup- 
posed, but merely modifications and important 
prime compounds of one great unformed principal, 
the first matter, from which they conceived that all 
bodies in the universe were and are constructed. 
That form with which fluidity is associated, was 
called water and under this term was comprehended 
not only the native element, but every other modi- 
fication of matter which assumes a similar form, 
such as "the juices of vegetables and the fluids of 
animals." Another arrangement of created sub- 
stances called "earth" was that under which they 
ranged all metals, stones and the like. "Air" 
covered all matter in an aerial, vaporous and gaseous 
state, and by "fire" was meant matter in its extreme 
state of tenuity and refinement. It was believed 
that fire was diffused through the universe, being 
sometimes in a "sensible" and sometimes in a 
"latent" state, or as Aristotle expressed it, heat 
exists sometimes in capacity and sometimes in 
energy. 



18 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Some of the earliest speculators in philosophy 
contended that all the materials which compose the 
universe existed at one time in a watery or fluid 
form and Adams says "it is curious to reflect that 
modern geology has reproduced nearly the same 
doctrine." Fire was the element with which many 
ancient philosophers supposed life to be most inti- 
mately connected, and some of them went so far as 
to consider fire as the very essence of the soul. "I 
am of the opinion," says the author of one of the 
Hippocratic treatises, "that what we call heat is 
immortal." Aristotle, the past master of logic and 
philosophy, commenting on the views of his day, 
fittingly said, "Some improperly call fire, or some 
such power, the soul; but it would be better to say 
that the soul subsists in such a body because heat is, 
of all bodies, the one most obedient," and the soul 
"performs by the instrumentality of this quality" 
—uniform bodily heat is essential for the continu- 
ance of human life. Speaking of the development 
and reproductivity of man, Aristotle says "This 
belongs to the soul rather than to fire, to the reason 
(spirituality) rather than to matter." 

The ancient philosophers taught the trans- 
mutability of the elements into one another and did 
not hesitate to proclaim as a great general truth 
"that all things are convertible into all things." 
The ancients noticed the changes that water under- 
goes in the process of vegetation — how it is con- 
verted into various woods, bark, leaves, flowers or 
fruit, all of which are resolvable, by the process of 
decomposition, into air or reducible into earth; we 
now know that all the solid parts of a tree may 
undergo a mutation into rock. But it is in the 
higher classes of animals that these changes of 



WATER 19 

simple matter admit of the greatest variety. Writ- 
ing of the works of Hippocrates, Adams says, "let 
us contemplate for a moment some of the most re- 
markable mutations which any article of food (as 
for example, bread) which has been presented to 
the stomach, is destined to undergo in the animal 
frame. We know that the vital powers of the 
stomach will convert the starch, of which it prin- 
cipally consists, into a fluid state which is called 
chyme and afterwards, when it has undergone some 
further changes, becomes the chyle of the physiolo- 
gists. It is then changed into the liquid blood and 
so complete is the transformation that scarcely one 
particle of the original food can be detected in the 
new product by all the vaunted skill of modern 
science. Blood is afterwards converted into many 
other fluids and solid substances, such as bones, 
cartilages, muscles and vessels and into bile, mucus 
and other recrementitious matter, all greatly differ- 
ing from one another both in appearance and prop- 
erties." 

Sir Isaac Newton said that nature seems to de- 
light in permutation and he particularly expressed 
the views of the ancients and practically duplicated 
the words of Strabo (63 B.C.) when he said "water 
which is a very fluid, tasteless salt, changes by heat 
into vapor, a sort of air ; and by cold into ice, which 
is a hard, pellucid, brittle, fusible stone and this 
stone returns into water by heat, and vapor returns 
into water by cold. Earth by heat becomes fire and 
by cold returns to earth." 

Heraclitus said that "the dissolution of earth is to 
become water and the dissolution of water is to be- 
come earth, and the dissolution of air to become fire 
and conversely." 



20 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Hippocrates, born 460 B. C. and venerated for 
over 23 centuries as "The Father of Medicine," wrote 
that the bodies of men and animals are nourished 
by three kinds of aliments, viz. : food, drink and air. 
After discussing atmospherical moisture, vapor 
and humidity he says, "And I wish to give an ac- 
count of the other kind of water, namely: of such 
as are wholesome and such as are unwholesome and 
what bad and what good effects may be derived 
from water; for water contributes much toward 
health. Such waters then as are marshy, stagnant 
and belong to lakes are necessarily hot in summer, 
thick and have a strong smell since they have no 
current; but being constantly supplied by rain- 
water and the sun heating them, they necessarily 
want their proper color and are unwholesome; in 
winter they become congested, cold and muddy with 
the snow and ice. Such waters then I reckon bad 
for every purpose. The next to them in badness 
are those which have their fountains in rocks so 
that they must necessarily be hard or come from a 
soil which produces thermal waters, such as those 
having minerals and salts in them ; for all these are 
formed by the force of heat. Good waters cannot; 
proceed from such a soil, but those that are hard 
and of a heating nature, difficult to pass by urine 
and of difficult evacuation by the bowels. The best 
are those which flow from elevated grounds and 
hills of earth; these are sweet, clear and can bear 
a little wine. But those are most to be recom- 
mended which run to the rising of the sun and 
especially to the summer sun, for such are neces- 
sarily more clear, fragrant and light. But all such 
as are selfish, crude and hard, are not generally 



WATER 21 

good for drink, but there are certain constitutions 
and diseases with which such waters agree." 

"Rain waters are the lightest, sweetest, thinnest 
and clearest; for originally the sun raises and at- 
tracts the thinnest and lightest part of the waters, 
as is obvious from the nature of salts ; for the saltish 
part is left behind owing to its weight, and forms 
salts; but the sun attracts the thinnest part and 
subtracts this not only from the lakes, but also from 
the sea and from all things which contain humidity, 
and there is humidity in everything; and from man 
himself, the sun draws off the thinnest and lightest 
part of the juices (perspiration). Wherefore, of 
all kinds of waters these spoil the soonest ; and rain 
water has a bad smell, because its particles are 
collected and mixed together from most objects so 
as to spoil the soonest. And in addition to this, 
when attracted and raised up, being carried about 
and mixed with the air, whatever part of it is 
turbid and darkish is separated and removed from 
the other and becomes cloud and mist, but the most 
attenuated and lightest part is left and becomes 
sweet, being heated and concocted by the sun, for 
all other things, when concocted, become sweet. 
While dissipated thus and not in a state of con- 
sistence it is carried aloft. But when collected and 
condensed by contrary winds, it falls down where- 
ever it happens to be most condensed. Such water 
requires to be boiled and strained. Waters from 
snow and ice are bad, for when once congealed, 
they never again recover their former nature; 
wherefore, I hold that water from snow and ice or 
those allied to them are the worst of any for all 
purposes whatever. Men are seized with disease 
when they drink water from great rivers into which 



22 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

other rivulets run or from a lake into which many 
streams of all sorts flow, for it is impossible that 
such waters can resemble one another, for one kind 
is sweet, another saltish and aluminous and some 
flow from thermal springs, and these being all 
mixed up together, disagree and the strongest part 
always prevails; but the same kind is not always 
the strongest, but sometimes one and sometimes 
another. There must be deposits of mud and sand 
in such water and disease must be engendered by 
them when drunk (by some people) , but not to all." 

Hippocrates, in his treatise on the use of liquids, 
also gives advice in the use of cold and hot water 
internally and externally in the treatment of dis- 
ease, of which a modern critic says, "That they are 
highly important and evince an extraordinary 
science for apprehending the true bearing of prac- 
tical points in healing, will hardly be denied by any 
person who is a competent judge." 

Strabo wrote nearly twenty centuries ago, "There 
are varieties of the watery element, for this kind is 
saltish and that sweet and fit to drink, and others 
again are poisonous, salutary, deadly, cold and hot." 
Plato (427-347 B. C.) in the Timaeus Dialogue 
says, that "water is called liquid because of its 
motion and the way in which it rolls upon the earth; 
and soft because its bases give way and are less stable 
than those of earth. When congealed above the 
earth, water becomes hail, and when on the earth, 
ice ; when compressed to a less degree and only half 
solid, when above the earth it is called snow and 
when upon the earth and made from dew it is called 
hoar-frost. Then, again, there are the numerous 
kinds of water which have been mingled with one 
another, and are distilled through plants which 



WATER 23 

grow in the earth ; this class is called by the general 
name of juices or saps. The unequal admixture of 
these fluids creates a variety of species: most of 
them are nameless, but four, which are of a fiery 
nature, are clearly distinguished and have names. 
First, there is wine, which warms the soul as well as 
the body; secondly, there is the oily nature, which is 
smooth, is bright, shining and of a glistening ap- 
pearance, including pitch and the juice of berries; 
also, thirdly, there is the diffusive class, which pro- 
duce sweetness, and these are included under the 
general name of honey; lastly, there is opium (?) 
which differs from all other juices and is a frothy 
liquid having a burning quality which dissolves the 
flesh." 

The wisdom of the ancients is not generally ap- 
preciated in our fevered research and speculation 
regarding the mysteries of the universe and the 
development of science. We now know that water 
is a compound and not an element. We read that 
the ancients believed that there were only four ele- 
ments, water, fire, earth and air, and later the 
Alchemists maintained that there were only three 
chemical elements, salt, sulphur and mercury, or 
the soluble, the combustible and the metallic. To- 
day we affirm that there are 82 elements known to 
modern science, an element being an ultimate unde- 
composable constituent of matter. The number of 
elements has been constantly increasing, during the 
last century of our "Mad rush of progress," but 
our knowledge of today is still steeped in much 
ignorance. Notwithstanding our research and 
scientific triumphs, we have advanced but little be- 
yond the attainment of the philosophers of twenty- 
four centuries ago. Democrites, discussing the four 



24 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

elements as classified in his day, stated that each of 
the elements, water, fire, earth and air, were formed 
of atoms "infinite in magnitude and number." 

In mentioning the opinion of the ancient philoso- 
phers, it is not necessary at this time to analytically 
probe into their theories, hypotheses and deductions, 
for it seems sufficient for our purposes to obtain a 
general comprehensive impression of their views. 
There is but little that we know today about such 
substances as water, that was not known or ap- 
preciated in an embryonic fashion by the sages two 
or more millenniums ago. Greater and more co- 
operative facilities and opportunities for research, 
the perfection of mechanical apparatus, the print- 
ing press, railroads, steamships and the practical 
utilization of electricity, have given us opportunities 
during the comparatively recent past, of checking 
up and continuing the cruder investigations of the 
mentally brilliant philosophers of old; and modern 
science with all its triumphs has to admit that, in 
the majority of cases, the premises of the ancient 
sages were sound in principle. The modern views 
of Scientists and Sanitary Expert Engineers, which 
we will briefly describe in our practical treatise on 
water for use in the human body, we find had their 
prototypes in the teachings of the ancient seekers 
after truth. 

Chemical Analysis of Water 

Water is the oxide of hydrogen and consists by 
weight of 88.9 parts of oxygen united with 11.1 
parts of hydrogen, or by volume of two parts of 
hydrogen combined with one part of oxygen 
( H 2 O ) . If frozen into solid ice, water retains its 
chemical constitution, although altered in physical 



WATER 25 

form. If converted by heat into steam, it is 
evaporated into invisible vapor. All these forms, 
liquid, solid and gaseous, are dependent upon 
temperature only for their maintenance. 

Water at 60° F. weighs approximately 1,000 
ounces avoirdupois (62% lbs.). This is taken as a 
standard to which the specific gravity of all liquids 
and solids is referred. The relative weight or the 
specific gravity of various waters and other sub- 
stances is as follows : 



Average rain water 
Distilled water 39° F. 




1.000 

.998 


(( 


" 60° F. 




.999 


(t 


" 212° F. 




.957 


Average sea water 
Mediterranean Ocean 




1.026 
1.029 


Dead Sea 






1.240 


Ice at 32° F 






.920 


Atmospheric Air 

Mean density of the earth 


.0012 
5.66 


The change of volume and density 
with varying temperatures is given in 
table : 


of fresh water 
l the following 


Temperature 
32° F. 


State 
Ice 


Specific 
Volume 
1.08999 


Density 
0.91752 


32° 


Water 


1.00012 


0.99988 


35.6° " 


K 


1-00003 


0.99997 


39.2° " 


tt 


1.00000 


1.00000 


42.8° " 


" 


1.00003 


0.99999 


46-4° " 


tt 


1.00012 


0.99988 


50. ° " 


tt 


1.00026 


0.99974 


68. ° " 


It 


1.00173 


0.99827 


86. ° " 


tt 


1.00425 


0.99577 


122. ° " 


tt 


1.01197 


0.98817 


212. ° " 


tt 


1.04323 


095856 



26 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Density Curve of Water 



100 

99 

*98 

c 

Q) 

5 



40 



97 
P6 
95 
94 
93 
92 
91 































t 
























































h 














Ire- ^ 































32 o 62 o Q2 o J2 2 o /52 „ J82 o 
Scale of Temperatures - Fahrenheit - 
FIG. 1. 



212 



Weight per Cubic Foot 
62.417 lbs. 



The vapor pressure of water is 4.58 m.m. at freez- 
ing point and increases rapidly at higher tempera- 
tures, being 760 m.m. at the boiling point. The 
weight of fresh water per standard volume likewise 
varies with temperature. 

Temperature 
32° F. 
35.6° F. 

39.2° F. 62.425 

42.8° F. 62.423 

113.0° F. 61.823 

212.0° F. 59.844 

Water boils at 212° F. only when the barometer 
stands at 30 inches. If the atmospheric pressure be 
increased, the boiling point will be raised and if the 
pressure be lowered the water will boil at a corre- 
spondingly lower temperature. If the boiling of 
water be attempted in the mountains, it is usually 



ft 


<< 


<( 


214° F. 


<< 


" 


(< 


211° F. 


tt 


" 


<( 


210° F. 


" 


(< 


(< 


202° F. 


" 


<< 


" 


193° F. 



WATER 27 

figured that for about every 500 ft. of ascent, water 
will boil at 1° F. lower temperature. 

At sea level, boiling point of water is 212° F. 

500 ft. below sea level boiling point of water is 213° F. 

1,013 " " " " 

509 " above " 

1,021 " " " " 

5,185 " " " " 

10,053 " " " " 

Boiling and Freezing Temperatures of Salt Water 

Water when saturated with salt, boils at the sea 
level at a temperature of 228.2° F., the density of 
the water raising the boiling temperature. Sea 
water freezes at about 28.4° F. We are told that 
the Greenland Ocean freezes at 26° to 31° F. ac- 
cording to its saltness. When concentrated to a 
specific gravity of 1.1045, sea water requires a 
temperature to freeze it 18.3° F. lower than fresh 
water. We are told that "even then the crystalliz- 
ing force rejects eighty per cent, of the salt and 
freezes the water alone, with the result that the ice 
of sea water when melted produces comparatively 
fresh water; but such water tastes somewhat bitter 
and unpleasant, for it still contains some salt which 
was entangled mechanically in the spaces between 
the ice crystals." We have seen that warm water 
is lighter than cold water, and that water attains its 
maximum density at 39.2° F. As the temperature 
of water approaches 32° F., which is the freezing 
point, the increase in volume is very slow and 
gradual. At 32° F. water begins to turn into solid 
crystals of ice and expands rapidly, but water ex- 
pands somewhat before freezing, while it is still 
liquid. This expansion of water before freezing is 



28 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

a wonderful provision of nature whereby a protect- 
ing mantle of ice is thrown over the surface of 
waters, thus safeguarding water life and maintain- 
ing accessible liquid below for the benefit of all life 
and the continuance of nature's processes. 

The Sea, the Source and Ultimate Destination of Land 
Waters 

The ocean is the "Home of the Waters." Water 
may fall upon the land, evaporate from its sur- 
face, be absorbed into the tissues of animal life or be 
used in the formation of the tissues of plants ; it may 
fulfil many mechanical duties, but the ocean is its 
ultimate destination, and it has been fitly said that 
these are but delays, transformations and changes, 
and eventually, by springs, rivulets and rivers, it 
returns to the mighty reservoir, the ocean from 
whence it came — carrying with it all the dissolved 
substances gathered on its journey, principally 
carbonate of lime and common salt; the former is 
being continually appropriated by the marine 
animals, whereas for the latter, there is but little 
use. The oceans and seas occupy 72 per cent, of 
the surface of the globe; the total volume of the 
water of the oceans is about 309,000,000 cubic 
miles, and the average depth of the seas is about 2.2 
miles. Sea water contains all known substances ; at 
any rate in traces. The salt in solution in the ocean 
would provide enough material to construct the 
African continent in all its relief. 

From the surface of the ocean a continuous in- 
visible stream of aqueous vapor is rising up into the 
atmosphere, to be re-condensed and precipitated as 
rain or snow. Approximately 72 per cent, of the 
rainfall returns directly to the sea and the remainder 



WATER 29 

falls on the land, collects into lakes and rivers and 
penetrates into the earth to appear again as springs 
or to form underground water courses and reser- 
voirs, into which we sink deep or driven wells. 

All the water that is indispensable to the exist- 
ence of human beings, animal and vegetable life and 
necessary to that industry which is the accompani- 
ment of modern life, arises from the condensation, 
in the form of rain and snow, of atmospheric water 
vapor, evaporated by the sun from the waters of 
the earth. If the land were level and the water from 
the heavens fell uniformly throughout the globe, the 
water so falling would, in a year, equal a layer of 
33.5 inches in thickness, which is equivalent to the 
eleven-thousandth part of the volume of the waters 
of the ocean. 

Fresh water is, therefore, made by nature from 
the salt water of the ocean, and man occasionally is 
compelled to obtain fresh water by distillation, 
which is but evaporation and re-condensation. Un- 
less such fresh water artificially obtained is well 
aerated, it will have a flat repulsive taste and gen- 
erally a somewhat disagreeable odor. 
Steam 

Steam is the elastic aeriform fluid or the vaporous 
substance into which water is converted under cer- 
tain conditions of pressure and relatively high heat. 
In its perfect state, steam is transparent, colorless 
and invisible — a gas ; when visible to the naked eye 
in the form of a cloud, it is then condensed and has 
become water. 
Oxygen in Water 

All water contains air ; without it, the water would 
be lifeless, insipid, flat and unpalatable. No life 



30 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

could exist in water robbed of its air. If fish were 
put into water that had been boiled and the air ex- 
pelled, they would come to the surface to breathe 
the atmospheric air and would eventually die unless 
the water was aerated, i. e., supplied with a normal 
amount of oxygen. Those who have had experience 
with aquariums know that organisms die if they are 
kept in distilled or flat water, freed from certain 
mineral matter and much of its natural oxygen. 
This merely indicates that fish cannot live without 
air and food. All natural waters contain air, but 
the air in water has double the quantity of oxygen 
in it that is present in atmospheric air, and for this 
reason fishes have only to pass through their gills 
(which fulfil the same functions as our lungs) half 
the quantity of water they would otherwise be re- 
quired to handle. Aquatic plants give off oxygen 
to the water and the fishes breathe it, giving out 
themselves carbonic acid on which the plants thrive ; 
"so beautifully does nature arrange the minutest 
detail of her work." Coles-Finch tells us that to 
manage an aquarium successfully, the first con- 
sideration must be the balancing of animal and 
vegetable life. 

Water as a Solvent 

Water is the most powerful and general solvent 
found in nature, hence water is never found in an 
absolutely pure state, for it will hold in solution 
almost all bodies. There is probably no terrestrial 
substance which, under certain favorable conditions, 
is not to some extent, soluble in water. As a rule 
water when hot is capable of holding a larger 
quantity of solids in solution than when cold; such 
hot water when cooled precipitates the surplus 



WATER 31 

solids in the form of crystals, but after cooling, if 
the remainder of the water is evaporated, other 
crystals will appear. 

Pure Water an Ideal Substance 

Absolutely pure water is never found in nature. 
In a strictly scientific sense such pure water is but a 
chemical ideal. The preparation and preservation 
of water in a pure state are problems of the greatest 
difficulty, for water dissolves and absorbs a varying 
quantity of nearly all substances with which it comes 
in contact. One may truthfully say that no man 
has ever seen or handled absolutely pure water. 
Natural waters are complicated mixtures, but the 
percentage and nature of the impurities obtained in 
places, free from human pollution, are generally 
such that they can be classified as nominally pure 
waters, having no appreciable deleterious action on 
man or on industrial and technical processes. For 
general purposes it is neither necessary nor advisable 
that water should be robbed of all its mineral con- 
tent, i. e., temporary and permanent hardness. 

The Common Origin of all Water Supply 

All sources of water supply have but one common 
origin, being derived from condensation of the 
aqueous vapors in the atmosphere, either as rain, 
snow, hail or sleet proceeding from the clouds, or 
dew and frost from the immediate atmosphere. It 
is also well known that all such moisture will ulti- 
mately ( 1 ) either evaporate and return invisibly to 
the atmosphere, (2) be absorbed by vegetable or 
animal life, (3) percolate into the earth to different 
depths where it forms the subterranean ocean, 
whence it re-appears as springs or wells, or (4) it 



32 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

may be collected on the surface and form streams, 
ponds, lakes and rivers. Some of the water will 
fall directly into the ocean, but that which falls on 
land may be expected to eventually join the mighty 
ocean and return by evaporation to the atmosphere, 
prepared to continue the apparently endless cycle 
necessary for the continuance of life on this planet. 

Rain Water and Its Purity 

The general impression that rain water is an 
ideal source of drinking water is erroneous. All 
water, whether fresh and nominally pure or salt 
and full of impurities, is originally derived from 
the rainfall. Water, we have seen, is the most 
universal solvent known, dissolving all the known 
gases and a large percentage of the solid bodies, 
and carrying other matter with it in suspension in 
its journey through the atmosphere. The possi- 
bility of contamination of rain water near cities 
and manufacturing centres is vastly greater than in 
lightly populated or uninhabited districts. In the 
purest rain water, traces of carbonic acid, ammonia 
and sea salt are to be found. Rain water rarely 
contains less than 1 grain of solid matter per gallon, 
and in towns 3 or 4 grains and even more. This 
solid matter is equivalent to about 3 lbs. per acre 
of ground for each 1 inch of rainfall. Rain water, 
an authority has said, when collected, say 25 miles 
from a town or city, cannot be considered pure, 
for it will contain more organic matter than deep 
well water. From experiments and analysis of rain 
water in the neighborhood of Caen, France, Pierre 
found that a thousand acres of land received 
annually from the atmosphere by means of rain : 



WATER 




Chloride of Sodium 


33.4 lbs. 


" Potassium 


73 " 


" Magnesium 


2.2 " 


" Calcium 


1.6 " 


Sulphate of Soda 


7.5 " 


" Potash 


7.2 " 


" Lime 


5.5 " 


" Magnesia 


5.3 " 



33 



The total amount of impurities in the Leeds and 
Garforth (Britain) rain, as determined at the ex- 
perimental station 6 miles from the manufacturing 
city of Leeds, is given as follows in tons per sq. 
mile per annum : 

Class Items Totals 

| Carbon 87.1 

(1) Insolubles J Tar 42.6 

Ash 2625 332.2 



, ' ~ , , f Sulphuric Acid 8.5 

(2) Sulphur I gulphates 77Q 

Compounds |^ ^^ gulphur Compounds 19>1 10 4,.6 

,. _,. ( Ammonia 4.1 

Commands \ NitratCS °- 14 

ompoun s ^ Albuminoids 1.0 5.24 

Angus Smith found in London rain water 2 
parts of sulphuric acid per 100,000, and in Man- 
chester and Liverpool water 4 to 5 parts. Prof. 
Church found in rain water many miles from the 
ocean, 6 grains of chloride per gal.; at Perugia, 
Italy, 75 miles from the sea, Belluci found 5 milli- 
grammes per litre. Rideal says, "Country rain 
may contain pollen granules, dried tissue, spores 
of fungi, insects and bacteria, so that it must always 
be properly filtered if used for drinking." 



34 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Miquel found that rain water showed on an aver- 
age 4.3 bacteria per c.c. in the country (Mont- 
souris) and 19 per c.c. in Paris; snow showed more 
bacteria than rain. Janowski found in freshly 
fallen snow from 34 to 463 bacteria per c.c. of 
snow water. 

In the British Report of the Royal Rivers Pollu- 
tion Commission of 1874, it was stated that one- 
half pint of rain water often condenses out of about 
3,373 cubic feet of air. This is said to be the 
quantity of air a man breathes in 8 days ; so that in 
drinking a tumblerful of such water which has 
washed a dirty atmosphere, he swallows an amount 
of impurity which would only gain access to his 
lungs by breathing in 8 days. 

Rainfall 

The supply of water in any region is principally 
dependent upon the annual average rainfall of the 
region itself or of the catchment area and territory 
that supplies the location in question with water — 
either surface or subterranean. The average rain- 
fall of the world is about 33.5 inches per annum. 
In New England it is about 43 inches, New York 
State 42 inches, British Isles 36 inches, with dis- 
tricts as low as 14.6 inches and others as high as 
176.6 inches per year. Cherra Punji (Assam) is 
said to have the maximum rainfall, viz. : 610 inches ; 
a section of the West Indies averages 285 inches, 
parts of Brazil 276 inches and Coimbra, Brazil, 224 
inches. There are also rainless districts on the 
globe and the Sahara Desert, part of Arabia, 
Desert of Gobi and part of Mexico, Chili and Peru 
have seldom experienced rain. It is said that one- 



WATER 35 

quarter of the world has less than 12 inches of rain 
per year, another quarter has 12 to 24 inches, a 
third quarter 24 to 48 inches and the remainder 
has to contend with over 48 inches rainfall per 
annum. 

Temperature of Water 

The waters of the Ocean, Lakes, Rivers and At- 
mospheric Rains have very variable temperatures, 
but the deep waters of the earth, the subterranean 
rivers and seas have generally a temperature 
peculiar to their depth below the surface. It is 
found in temperate regions that at a depth of about 
80 to 100 feet in the earth, there is generally an 
unvarying temperature. All the world over, there 
must be a constant temperature at a constant depth. 
It is reported that in Java at 2 to 3 feet, and in 
India at a depth of 12 feet from the surface, the 
thermometer is constant all the year round. It is 
said that in the Catacombs of Paris, 100 feet below 
the surface, there is no change of temperature. 
Below the invariable stratum where the influence of 
the seasonable changes is negligible, the tempera- 
ture becomes greater as we go down deeper, be- 
cause of the internal heat of the earth. Coles-Finch 
has estimated that there is an average increase of 
1° F. for every 66 feet as we descend nearer the 
center of the earth below the line of constant 
temperature; this is equivalent to 80° F. for every 
mile. At a depth of about 2 miles below the earth's 
surface, the temperature would be the same as the 
boiling point of water at the surface ; at a depth of 
20 miles, the temperature would be 1760° F. and 
at 50 miles, 4000° F. at which point every known 



36 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

solid substance would melt. Temperature of wells 
in British chalk formations at various depths gave : 

150 feet deep 53° F. 

I; 250 " " 56° F. 

650 " " 65° F. 

which gives an increase of 12° F. in 500 feet, or 
1° F. for each 41.66 feet in depth. Careful observa- 
tions taken during the building of the Simplon 
Tunnel gave an increase in temperature of 1 ° F. for 
every 71.5 feet in one vertical gradient, and 1° F. 
for every 67.5 feet in another. With about 1*4 
miles of rock over their heads the workmen en- 
countered large quantities of hot water with a 
temperature ranging from 104° to 117° F. 

At Sperenberg, Berlin, there is a boring 4194 
feet deep through rock salt, which produces brine. 
The increase in temperature recorded in this boring 
as the work progressed was : 

At a depth of 1,000 ft. increase of 1° F. for each 42 ft. 
" " " " 2,000 " " "1° F. " " 57 " 

" " 3,000 to 4,000 " "1° F. " " 95 " 

The following are the temperatures of the water 
from several renowned borings and they show an 
average increase of temperature due to the earth's 
internal heat of 1° F. for a descent of from 40 to 
55 ft. 

Grenelle and Passy 

Kissingen 

St. Louis 

Louisville 

Charlestown 

Classification of Water Supplies 

The importance of a supply of wholesome drink- 
ing water to the individual, family or community 



82° 


F. 


66° 


F. 


73.4° 


F. 


76.5° 


F. 


87° 


F. 



WATER 37 

cannot be exaggerated. Primitive settlers located 
in close proximity to a reliable supply of good fresh 
water, and towns have sprung up on the banks of 
rivers, lakes and in the vicinity of deep wells and 
springs. It has been truly said that the population 
of old gathered round healthful and maintained 
water supplies, and water has ever been the valuable 
and magnetic core of human, and later of agri- 
cultural and industrial centers. 

The British River Pollution Commission has 
stated that "In respect of freedom from the most 
objectionable of impurities, organic matter (organic 
carbon and organic nitrogen) waters range them- 
selves in the following order : 

I- Spring water 

II- Deep well water 

III. Rain water 

IV. Upland surface water, 

the last named being much inferior to the first 
three." 

In respect to wholesomeness, palatability and 
general fitness for drinking and cooking, the waters 
derived from various sources may be classed in the 
following order : 



Wholesome 



1. Spring water 

2. Deep Well water 



j 3. Upland Surface water 
| 4. Stored Rain water 

{5. Surface waters from cultivated land 
6. River water to which sewage gains access 
7. Shallow well water. 

Natural waters group themselves, from a bac- 
teriological standpoint into four well-marked 



38 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

classes, according to their relation to the rich layer 
of bacterial growth upon the surface of the globe. 

A. Atmospheric Water — Which has never been sub- 
ject to contact with the 
earth. 
B- Surface Water — Immediately exposed to such con- 
tamination in streams and pools. 

C. Stored Water — In lakes and large ponds where 

storage has reduced bacterial 
numbers and produced a state of 
comparative purity. 

D. Ground Water — From which previous contamina- 

tion has been even more com- 
pletely removed by filtration 
through the deeper layer of the 
soil. 

Hardness and Softness of Water 

When rain water has filtered through rocks and 
soil and reappears in the form of a spring or stream, 
or is brought to the surface by means of wells or 
borings, it is more or less charged with earthy 
salts in solution. When such salts are present in 
small quantities the water is termed "soft"; when 
the water contains relatively large proportions, it 
is said to be "hard." Rain water contains few salts 
in solution and is, therefore, universally known as 
a "soft" water. The hardness of rain water varies 
from 0° to 10° ; the latter degree is surprising, but 
was obtained near the seashore at Land's End, Eng- 
land, 100 feet above the sea, when the wind was 
blowing strong from the ocean. In rough weather 
authorities estimate the average hardness of rain 
water at about .62°. One degree of hardness im- 
plies that each gallon of water contains 1 grain of 
Bicarbonate or Sulphate of Lime and that 1 lb. of 



WATER 39 

soap for each degree of hardness will be required to 
soften 833 gallons of water; or, according to Clark's 
scale, y± oz. of soap will remove 1° from 10 gallons 
of water. The term "hard" as applied to water had, 
primarily, reference to the harsh or hard feeling in 
washing the hands with soap, when "instead of 
forming a smooth elutriant coating which removes 
grease and dirt, the latter disappears and there is a 
curdy appearance in the wash water. This consists 
of insoluble compounds of the earthy metals in the 
water (mainly Calcium and Magnesium) with the 
fatty acids in the soap." 

It is well known that "soft" water readily dis- 
solves soap and because soapy waters are sticky 
and easily form air bubbles, a lather or soapsuds is 
easily made in soft waters with an economical ex- 
penditure of soap, physical effort and time. 

The difference between hard and soft waters 
consists primarily in the relative quantities of Bi- 
carbonate of Lime contained therein. 

Water of less than 5° of hardness is considered very soft. 
Water from 5° to 10° of hardness is considered fairly soft. 
Water from 10° to 15° of hardness is considered normal. 
Water from 15° to 20° of hardness is considered fairly hard. 
Water from 20° to 30° of hardness is considered hard. 
Water of more than 30° of hardness is considered very hard. 

There are two kinds of "hardness" — permanent 
and temporary. Permanent hardness is primarily 
due to the presence of Sulphate of Calcium. 
Temporary hardness is due to Bicarbonate of 
Calcium (lime). Temporary hardness can be re- 
moved by boiling, but permanent hardness cannot 
be similarly overcome, hence the generally accepted 
designation — temporary, or the easily removable, 
and permanent, the immovable. 



40 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The simplest way of softening water and reduc- 
ing or eliminating its temporary hardness, is by 
boiling, and the greater the heat, the greater will be 
the percentage of contained matter which will be 
precipitated. 



^emperature 


Percentage of Temporary 


Fahrenheit 


Hardness Deposited 


217° 


50.0 


227° 


60.5 


236° 


69.0 


250° 


81.7 


261° 


90.3 


290° 


100.0 



By this method of treatment, the Bicarbonates of 
Lime and Magnesia are decomposed into free car- 
bonic acid, which escapes, and insoluble carbonate 
of lime and magnesia, which are precipitated. The 
hardness of water that cannot be removed by boil- 
ing, i. e., the permanent hardness, consists prin- 
cipally of the Sulphates of Lime and Magnesia. 
The Chlorides and Nitrates of Calcium and Mag- 
nesia are likewise not precipitated by drawing off 
the carbonic acid and they also remain in solution 
after boiling as permanent hardness. 

The removal of temporary hardness by boiling is 
expensive ; it, moreover, causes a loss of water and 
the product has a flat, insipid taste because the dis- 
solved gases have been driven out. 

Clark patented a process in 1841 which consists 
of adding Lime Water to neutralize the excess 
carbonic acid, keeping the earthy carbonates in 
solution as bicarbonates. Liquid treated in this way 
retains its permanent hardness, plus about 2 grains 
per gallon of calcium carbonate and a great part of 
the magnesia. The precipitate carries down heavy 



WATER 41 

metals, such as iron and manganese and also en- 
tangles much of the organic matter, organisms and 
mud, so that much improvement is almost always 
obtained by the use of Clark's method. The re- 
moval of permanent hardness is seldom attempted 
in water for drinking and other domestic purposes. 
For boiler use and certain manufacturing purposes, 
Caustic Soda or Carbonate of Soda and sometimes 
other alkaline mixtures are added to water, with or 
without the addition of lime, the composition and 
amount depending on the chemical characteristics 
of the water to be treated. 

Sohn has suggested the following general classi- 
fication of drinking waters, having due regard to 
source, relative hardness and pollution: 

A. Upland Surface Waters with impurities chiefly 
organic; total solids 2 to 10; hardness low — 
1 to 5. 

B. Surface Water flowing from cultivated land. 
Less pure than A; total solids 10 to 30; hardness 
5 to 25. 

C. Water from Shallow Wells; should be used with 
great caution; composition very variable; often 
dangerously polluted. 

D. Water from Deep Wells; less liable to organic 
contamination- Sometimes very hard ; sometimes 
very soft. 

E. Rain Water. Very soft; usually traces of organic 
matter, ammonia nitrates, chlorine, etc. 

Sohn states that in addition to carbonates and 
sulphates of lime and magnesia, other substances 
present in water in relatively small quantities, are 
common salt, nitrates, silica, ammonia compounds, 
also living organisms and impurities arising from 
contamination. 



42 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The British Rivers Pollution Commission con- 
sidered broadly three classes of water in relation to 
hardness and classified these in relation to their 
source. 

1. Soft Waters from Igneous Rocks; dissolved solids 
up to 3 parts per 100,000. 

2. Moderately Hard Waters from sandstone and 
shale; dissolved solids from 3 to 15 parts per 
100,000. 

3. Hard Waters from chalk and limestone, dis- 
solved solids from 15 parts up to 77.5 parts per 
100,000. 

In some parts of the United States the well 
waters, and very occasionally even the surface 
waters, are so hard as to be almost or quite useless 
for washing and even for drinking. Hough and 
Sedgwick have said, "It has never been shown that 
moderately hard waters are necessarily any more 
harmful for drinking than soft waters. Persons 
used to either kind are apt to suffer temporary dis- 
turbances, such as diarrhoea, when they change sud- 
denly from one to the other ; but otherwise, no great 
or permanent harm ordinarily happens. If, how- 
ever, a drinking water is very hard and heavily 
charged with mineral salts, so that it becomes 
eventually a mineral water, it may be unfit for 
regular use" (domestic or industrial) . 

Ground Waters are apt to be hard, i. e., they will 
most probably contain large amounts of lime and 
magnesia in solution. Two conditions must con- 
tribute to the making of hard ground waters : 

First . There must be present the hardness-produc- 
ing materials. 



WATER 43 

Second. Carbonic Acid must be present, i. e-, con- 
ditions must be favorable for dissolving the 
hardness-producing materials which the 
water encounters in its travel. 

An authority has aptly said: "The hardness of 
water depends more upon the richness or fertility of 
the soil upon the catchment area than upon the 
amount of lime in the various materials through 
which the water flows, provided, of course, that the 
land contains an ample amount of lime which can 
be taken up." In the making of hardness, water 
dissolves lime from the ground it passes through, 
but it must needs draw its Carbonic Acid to dis- 
solve the lime from the organic matter in the soil. 
The Report of the British Rivers Pollution Com- 
mission gives the following table : 

Degree of Water Rate of 

No. of Cities Population Hardness Used Mortality 

26 73,000 

25 81,000 

60 44,000 

London 3,250,000 

The opinion of the Commission was that "Both 
soft and hard waters are equally wholesome and we 
give no preference to soft water." Coles-Finch dis- 
cussing this matter says, "Hard water is beneficial 
to the human system to a far greater extent than we 
are generally aware, especially to children and 
young people, the lime in the water helping to 
build up their frames. It has been noted that in 
hard water districts the absence of rickets is ap- 
parent and the inhabitants generally have better 
teeth than those living in soft water districts." 

At one time it was thought that hard or even 
moderately hard waters were deleterious to the hu- 



Under 5° 


29.1 


5° to 10° 


28.3 


Over 10° 


24.3 


16° to 32° 


24.6 



44 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

man system. Some authorities have maintained 
that very hard water produces a prevalence of 
gouty and calculous disorders and goitre. Dr. 
Tyrrell has said that "So great is the proportion of 
mineral substance taken into the system in drink- 
ing water that it is safe to assert that, if after ma- 
turity was reached, only distilled or other absolutely 
pure water was partaken of, life would be pro- 
longed fully ten years. Up to the mature age it 
would be inadvisable as the salts are necessary for 
bone formation." Excessively hard waters may, 
under certain conditions, prove injurious and 
possibly, in a few isolated cases, hard water may, 
perhaps, prove deleterious to persons of advanced 
age, but Tyrrell's sweeping condemnation of hard 
waters is not substantiated by facts and his premise 
in regard to the use of moderately hard waters by 
persons of mature age is diametrically opposed to 
the truth as demonstrated by scientific research. 

The British Commission reported, to their own 
surprise, that "Both soft and hard waters are 
equally wholesome," and they amazed many of the 
experts of their day by finding that, based on the 
facts collected, they could from the standpoint of 
health "give no preference to soft water." As a 
matter of fact, the statistics which they compiled 
clearly show the superiority of hard water. Cities 
with water under 5° of hardness had a death rate 
20 per cent, in excess of that of cities using water 
containing over 10° of hardness, and the colossal 
London, using hard water and harboring poverty, 
vice and with conditions favorable to the propaga- 
tion of disease in its poor and thickly populated sec- 
tions, showed better than 18.5 per cent, less mor- 



WATER 45 

tality per thousand people, than the average of 26 
small cities using soft water. 

The Lancet has said, "It is a popular but prob- 
ably wrong impression that hard drinking waters 
are prejudicial to the health and, moreover, are in- 
jurious to delicate skins when used regularly for 
ablutionary purposes. Gout, kidney disease and 
dyspepsia, by an interesting line of reasoning, have 
been supposed to be due to or aggravated by, the 
drinking of excessively hard waters. Some mysteri- 
ous connection between the chalk of the water and 
the formation of 'Stones' in the kidneys, or of 
'chalk' in the joints in gout is a favorite specula- 
tion with many; but in the history of the world's 
water supplies there is no trustworthy evidence that 
the drinking of hard water influences for the worse 
these diseases. The idea is, in fact, chimerical." 

Wanklyn, referring to the large amount of solid 
matter in London drinking water as compared with 
that of Manchester and the splendid waters of Loch 
Katrine, used to supply the city of Glasgow, said 
"The healthiness of London is higher than either, 
and I am warranted in saying and maintaining 
that high solid residue in drinking water can have 
no very markedly injurious effect on public health. 
London proves it. Here the major part of the solid 
residue consists of Carbonate of Lime; subtract 
this and the rest of the solid residue will not be 
much higher than the water of Manchester and 
other soft waters." 

Gaertner states that the valley of Biirgel in the 
Thuringerwald has always drunk with impunity 
from time immemorial a water with the extraordi- 
nary hardness of 129° (Clark) of which 110° is 
calcareous and 19° magnesium. He also cites 



46 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Gottingen with 56° and Wurtzburg with 37.5°. 
Health does not demand the condemnation of the 
average water for its hardness, nor the conversion 
of the hard, bright, sparkling water into soft in- 
sipid "treated" water. Pure spring water is al- 
ways much better and more healthful, when it is 
procurable, than distilled or boiled water. Soft 
water is undoubtedly much pleasanter than hard 
water for external application, but this fact is no 
justification for the saying that "it is better to 
deposit salts in a hot water kettle than to burden 
the human system." 

A lack of mineral substance in water taken habit- 
ually is far more injurious to health than the use 
of a water containing an excess quantity of such 
salts. Very soft waters are not wholesome and 
should be avoided. Roese, a long time ago, made 
some interesting investigations regarding the dele- 
terious effect of the constant use of drinking water, 
very poor in lime. He found that wherever ex- 
tremely soft water was used, the people are of small 
stature and chest measurement, and have a tend- 
ency to tuberculosis. He stated that "it is import- 
ant that the drinking supply should have chalk in 
it, because a very soft water helps to decay the teeth 
and has an injurious effect on bodily growth and 
also on the military resistance of men and the suck- 
ling power of women." 

Surgeons of the French Navy have emphatically 
affirmed that distilled water is prejudicial to health 
on account of the absence of mineral salts needed 
for body nutrition. They attribute numerous cases 
of tubercular condition among sailors to the de- 
mineralization of the water, the evaporators on 
board ship making fresh water from the water of 



WATER 47 

the ocean. Theoretically there are sufficient 
mineral constituents in the average diversified food 
to supply the proper amount of salts needed for 
bodily growth, but the necessary mineral constitu- 
ents are apparently much more easily assimilated 
from water than from food, for in the former they 
are directly diffusible and ready for immediate ab- 
sorption, a condition that does not exist with solid 
foods in general. It appears, therefore, that if soft 
water has, of necessity, to be used, foods with excess 
mineral content, to supply the water deficiency, and 
of a nature that will tend to permit of the utiliza- 
tion of such salts by the human system, should be 
used in conjunction with such water. 

Impurities in Water 

The impurities in water may be classified under 
either one of two prime divisions — organic or in- 
organic. Inorganic matter as we have seen, con- 
sists of various salts which contribute to the 
temporary or permanent hardness of water. Min- 
eral springs contain bicarbonate, sulphates, sul- 
phides and chlorides of various metals, such as 
magnesia, potash, calcium and soda, also carbonate 
of iron, silicic acid, etc. Ammonia — nitrates, or 
nitrites, found in water indicate the presence of 
organic (vegetable or animal) matter which is 
undergoing decomposition. Water polluted with 
sewage generally shows traces of contamination in 
the products of organic decomposition, such as 
ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, while chlorides, phos- 
phates and other salts will also be present. Bacteria 
exist wherever sewage is deposited in water and 
under certain conditions such bacteria may be of a 
pathogenic nature. 



48 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Sewage-polluted water is generally pleasant to 
the taste owing to the chlorides and other salts 
present. The old-fashioned method of testing 
water for relative purity by means of taste and ap- 
pearance is a relic of the blissful days of gross 
ignorance; a "sparkling appearance and an agree- 
able flavor in a water are compatible with a high 
degree of contamination." Scientists have found 
that the presence of bacteria in numbers even as 
high as 2,000,000 per cubic centimeter does not im- 
pair the transparency and clearness of water, there- 
fore, the archaic but popular method of testing 
water for drinking purposes by transparency and 
flavor is no true criterion of purity, unless it is also 
well known that the water comes from a source 
which carries with it no danger of contamination by 
sewage and animal life or the discharges and pollu- 
tion from manufacturing establishments. 

It is apparently impossible to establish a standard 
of water purity based on chemical examination. 
The theory of today regarding the harmfulness of 
water is that the deleterious effects are caused by 
the presence of noxious micro-organisms in the 
water and that "the results of chemical analyses 
have their value in the light that they throw on the 
quality of the water, from the standpoint of the 
extent of bacterial contamination." The organic 
impurities in water consist of small living organ- 
isms, eggs of parasitic worms, bits of tissue from 
animals, spores, infusoria and bacteria. Some of 
these impurities are harmful, others are not harm- 
ful in themselves but they are important inasmuch 
as they may suggest the nature and origin of the 
water contamination. Most water, as found and 
used for drinking purposes, contains bacteria, al- 



WATER 49 

though in pure spring water, rising from a good 
depth and having been purified by percolation 
through nature's filter, bacteria may be absent. It 
is said that over 200 different forms of bacteria have 
been studied in water. Fortunately most of them 
are harmless and in fact some may serve us the good 
turn of destroying other organic matter present in 
the water. Bacteria in water suggests the con- 
tamination of water and the number of bacteria 
suggests the extent of the contamination. Noxious 
bacteria may be present in polluted waters because 
of the contamination, whereas such pathogenic 
bacteria could not be present in water proceeding 
from a natural, wholesome source. Two of the 
principal epidemic scourges of the world, viz.: 
typhoid fever and cholera, have been proved to be 
disseminated mainly through water contaminated 
with sewage. 

Water is generally classified and graded sub- 
stantially as follows: 

A. Physical Data 1. Turbidity 

2. Color 

3. Taste 

4. Odor 

5. Original Temperature 

B. Solid Impurities 1. Suspended solids 

2. Colloidal substances 

3. Matter in suspension 

C. Chemically 1. Organic 

2. Inorganic 

The solids are generally divided into groups ac- 
cording to their physical state; the temporary and 
permanent hardness is determined and when de- 
sired, the nature and extent ( quantitative and quali- 



50 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

tative) are determined by complete analysis. Most 
of the organic matter is either in solution or suspen- 
sion ; only a comparatively small amount is found in 
a colloidal state, such as certain albuminoid and 
humous compounds. 

The bacterial content of ordinary soil is very 
large, ranging we are told, from 10,000 to 5,000,000 
per gram of soil, while in polluted soil, the bacterial 
content may rise as high as 100,000,000 per gram. 
Such an extent of bacterial life does not continue far 
below the surface, for at a depth of 10 ft. scientists 
tell us there is practical sterility. Water that has 
been percolated through upper layers of soil will, 
of course, carry off very many of the germs en- 
countered in their travel, including pathogenic ones 
— a menace to health. Subsoil water is in general 
almost free from living and suspended impurities, 
since it has passed downward through several feet 
of filtering soil, alluvial gravel or sand, overlying 
the bedrock or floor, so that the wonderful processes 
of natural purification may have had time to be ful- 
filled. 

All authorities agree that man and the works and 
possessions of man pollute the waters of the earth to 
his own detriment. Natural waters, whether hard or 
relatively soft, are generally fairly healthful, but 
man is unfortunately the author of epidemics and 
ravaging diseases, because in his arrogance and 
ignorance he pollutes nature's water courses, sets at 
naught her laws and as nature's insurgent son, be- 
lieves that there are no barriers that cannot be re- 
moved if he so elects, and no delicate condition of 
equilibrium that he cannot upset and still avoid all 
evil consequences and the denunciation and punish- 
ment which follow all who violate nature's im- 



WATER 51 

mutable laws. The history of the world proves that 
man has suffered greatly by nature's prompt and 
unfailing retribution for his short-sighted errors 
and intolerant and selfish aggressiveness, but it has 
taken ages for man to see it. The plague and 
scourges of history were not the work of the devil 
as was once believed, but were the natural reaction 
following man's violation of the laws of the uni- 
verse. If man continues to pollute nature's streams 
and lakes and to take his drinking water from such 
contaminated sources, he will suffer. If man drinks 
water from a shallow well, located in his farm' 
yard where waste matter, animal and domestic, 
seeps through the top soil, which is inevitably 
charged with prolific bacterial life, he will suffer 
and all the doctors and dope in the country cannot 
keep a man in health who persists in violating a 
fundamental principal of nature, decreed from the 
birth of this inhabited world to function for the 
benefit and continuance of biologic life. 

The waters of the river Seine, above Paris, aver- 
age, we are told, 300 bacteria per cubic centimeter; 
within the city limits, after sewage has been dis- 
charged into it, the bacteria inc — reased to 200,000 
per c.c. ; Prudden found in the Hudson river, above 
Albany, over 2,000 bacteria per c.c; Croton water 
which is used in New York City averaged 309 
during the years 1886-1890, with a maximum of 
1950 and a minimum of 20 per c.c. Crude sewage 
at Lille, France, showed 5,000,000 bacteria per c.c. 
Brockton, Mass., 3,150,000; Boston, Mass., as high 
as 11,487,500 during September, 1903, and as low 
as 587,100 in November of the same year — averag- 
ing 2,800,000 for seven years. Paris showed 10,- 
000,000 per c.c. ; Belfast, Ireland, about the same. 



52 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The average European city has shown from 1,000,- 
000 to 5,000,000 bacteria per c.c, depending on 
peculiar conditions and the season of the year; 
London, 2,000,000 to 11,000,000; Columbus, Ohio, 
showed 320,000 to 27,000,000 with an average of 
about 3,600,000 per c.c. By no stretch of the 
imagination can sewage, therefore, be considered 
healthful to mix with the drinking water of man or 
any other form of animal life. 

The progressive pollution of ground water, as 
evidenced by the water of a shallow well, is well 
illustrated by the experience of occupants of the 
Military Camp at Algiers, reported by Vincent in 
1905: 

Bacteria Bacillus coli 

per c.c. per c.c. 

Before arrival of troops 200 

6 days after troops arrived 770 

14 " " " " 4240 1 

41 " " " " 6960 2 

60 " " " " 14900 10 

Man cannot pollute nature's storehouses of water 
maliciously, indifferently or ignorantly without 
reaping in true boomerang fashion the full penalty 
of his crime. The Algiers well, healthful before the 
military occupation, was soon polluted by man with 
his unhygienic habits, spreading its bequeathed 
disease broadcast. 

The bacterial content of some rivers is highest 
when the stream is lowest — when the sewage con- 
tent of such polluted streams is least subject to 
dilution. In more normal or naturally-fed streams 
the bacterial numbers are highest when rain brings 
surface pollution. In lakes, seas and large bodies 



WATER 



53 



of water, bacterial life decreases generally as one 
passes downward from the surface and outward 
from the shore. 

Freezing water will not, as popularly supposed, 
kill the bacteria; it generally operates with the 
opposite effect. Cold or freezing positively does not 
render a liquid safe or comparatively safe for 
drinking purposes; the cold exerts a contrary in- 
fluence. Prudden found that many bacteria with- 
stand freezing and may be preserved alive in ice for 
many weeks, possibly months. This is true of the 
bacillus typhosus — the human scourge responsible 
for typhoid fever. The ice cut from sewage pol- 
luted streams and lakes may be quite as dangerous 
as contaminated water. Many cases of typhoid 
fever have been directly traced to the use of impure 
ice. Epidemics of disease have been traced to the 
consumption of ice cream made with contaminated 
water. 

Houston has proved that typhoid bacilli, when 
placed in water, actually survived longer at low 
temperatures. 

Typhoid Bacilli 

Temperature surviving after 

Fahrenheit one week 

32° 46 per cent. 

41° 14 " " 

50° 0.07 per cent. 

64.4° 0.04 " 



Period for final 
disappearance of 
bacilli 
9 weeks 

7 " 
5 " 
4 " 



Prescott and Winslow say that "almost without 
exception, outbreaks of typhoid fever due to pol- 
luted water occur in cold weather and this is, in part 
at least, due to the greater resistance of typhoid 
bacilli at low temperatures.' ' 



54 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Shallow Well* 

The use of the shallow dug wells is an old, simple 
and still a popular rural method of obtaining water, 
which is usually hoisted by means of a hand-winch, 
with a rope and bucket attached, from the ground 
level of water saturation. Technically considered, a 
shallow well may be a rather deep well, i. e., deep 
below the surface of the ground, for the word 
"shallow" refers to the depth of water in a well and 
not. to the distance of the bottom of the well from the 
surface of the ground. Some shallow wells, or wells 
in which there is only sufficient water to enable one 
to fill a bucket with reasonable ease, are quite a good 
distance from the ground surface, but the bottom of 
such wells is only a few feet below the line of ground 
saturation and as a rule only just below the line of 
variable saturation. The large wells of this "shal- 
low" type used for farms and villages are connected 
with a hand well-pump, or are operated with a 
horse harnessed to a pole or a pump actuated by the 
wind. 

The water from shallow wells is apt to be con- 
taminated, if such wells are in the vicinity of 
domestic habitation, farm yards, animal barns, 
cesspools, etc., for shallow wells are directly fed 
by surface water (and this includes all forms of 
sewage and drainage water) which percolates 
through the ground and mixes with the under- 
ground water, which at times may be but a few feet 
below the surface. The possibilities of pronounced 
pollution of shallow well water in the vicinity of 
homes and farms are shown in the accompanying 
illustrations. 

Shallow wells supplying one or two small houses 
with the drainage properly taken care of and 



WATER 



55 



cleanly, hygienic conditions prevailing in general, 
may prove acceptable sources for the water desired 
in the homes; the purity of such water depends, 
however, on the depth and nature of the ground 
percolation being ample for proper filtration and 
upon the protection of the water by sanitary and 
hygienic conditions prevailing both in regard to the 




Fig. 2. 
a shallow well badly located in a farm yard 

[Hough and Sedgwick] 

occupants of the homes and the use of the entire 
ground surface in the vicinity of the well. Sanitary 
Engineers generally affirm that the water from 
shallow wells is wholly unfit to drink and should 
never be used without being sterilized. Many people 
seem to prefer water drawn from wells in their own 
rear yard to the water which may have been scien- 
tifically treated and purified by the City Water 
Plant. It is surprising how some people cling to 
the fallacy that their shallow wells must contain 



56 ^ MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

pure and wholesome water, because it looks clear 
and tastes sweet; the fact that a cesspool or stable 
drainage may exist within a few feet of their well 
is of no interest or importance to them. An au- 
thority on the purification of water has said "It is 
at times amusing when a shallow well containing 
impure water (demonstrated by many analyses) is 



Fig. 3. 

a bad arrangement of shallow well and 

cesspool 

[Hough and Sedgwick] 

condemned by the Sanitary authorities, to listen to 
the heated discussion that arises. The occupant re- 
calls in anger the various ages of his ancestors who 
drank this water, the general trend of the remarks 
being that some secret collusion must exist between 
the Medical Officers and the Water authorities who 
have supplanted this beautiful well and insist upon 
being paid for a far inferior water." 

The water in shallow wells may be pure and 



WATER 57 

wholesome, but the odds are that it is not. The 
possibilities for contamination are very great, so 
notwithstanding the romance and poetry associated 
with this form of water supply, shallow wells must 
succumb to advancing science, which can not only 
afford but guarantee protection to man from certain 
ills that he has periodically been prone to, but 
through ignorance and faulty diagnosis, has never, 
until comparatively recently, been able to success- 
fully combat. 

Deep Wells 

If water is required in large quantities, wells of 
large diameter penetrating far below the line of 
saturation are often sunk. Such wells, of course, 
fill to the line of saturation. The "Rest Level" in 
any well or boring is that level to which the water 
rises upon cessation of pumping. The "Rest Level" 
is fairly constant, if the amount of water extracted 
is not in excess of the percolation. The "Rest 
Level" and "Pumping Level" vary in different 
formations and according to local circumstances. 
Deep well water is usually considered far safer than 
the water from shallow wells ; any local contamina- 
tion is more diffused and there is more of a possi- 
bility of purification having been obtained by 
natural filtration. About sixty-eight per cent, of 
the Brooklyn, N. Y., water supply, or about 100,- 
000,000 gallons of water per day is obtained from 
the ground, mostly from tubular wells driven in the 
coarse open sand and gravel. Ground water, which 
is water drawn from the ground by wells or taken 
by springs, is mostly used in America for small 
places and not large cities, for it is generally easier 
to get a little ground water than a large amount. 



58 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Artesian Wells 

Twenty centuries ago the Chinese bored for 
water; the Arabs employed similar means for ob- 
taining water in the Sahara Desert in very early 
days, but it was not until about 1750 that this type 
of well was driven in Western Europe. They were 
first sunk on an extensive scale by Occidentals in 
our so-called modern times in the French Province 
of Artoris, hence their name "Artesian.'' These 
wells are perpendicular borings of relatively small 
diameter through which the water rises to its 
"Rest Level," producing a constant supply of 
water. The "Rest Level" is not necessarily the 
surface and an Artesian well is not necessarily a 
well from which the water flows or is thrown forth 
in geyser fashion, but many Artesian wells, be- 
cause of ground formation and geological strata, 
are flowing wells, and many send their water sky- 
ward, or would if it were not imprisoned, or rather 
harnessed, for direct useful purposes. The force by 
which the water in Artesian wells is enabled to rise, 
is derived from the natural hydrostatic pressure 
when the overlying impermeable strata are pierced. 
In St. Louis, Mo., there is an Artesian well 3843 
feet deep; in Budapesth one 3182 feet deep. In 
Louisville, Ky., a well 2086 feet deep, though only 
3 inches minimum diameter, is said to yield nearly 
as much water as the famous Grenelle well in Paris 
which, with a depth of 1798 feet, yields about 
800,000 gallons of water per day. In Chicago there 
is a 5-inch boring which delivers about the same 
quantity of water each 24 hours. The "Passy" 
boring in Paris is 1923 feet deep and has a diameter 
at the bottom of 28 inches. It throws a continuous 
stream of water 54 feet above the level of the 



WATER 



59 



ground at the rate of five and a half million gallons 
per day. The geological section of the Paris basin 
( as illustrated by the accompanying sketch with the 
horizontal dimensions greatly contracted) shows 
that the water falling on the Lower Greensand at 
Verdun keeps the formation charged. 



DIAGRAM SHOWING THE CAUSE OF THE RISE 
OF WATER (FROM THE LOWER GREEN SAND) 
IN ARTESIAN WELLS IN THE PARIS BASIN 



>. z 



THE "PASSY" BORING 
IN PARIS IS 1923 FT. 
DEEP IT THROWS i 
A CONTINUOUS j 
STREAM OF WATER ; 
54 FT 
ABOVE 
GROUND . 

LINE 0?/~ 
SEA LEVEL 



ALTITUDE 
OF PARIS 
ABOUT 200 

FEET- 
VARIES 
FROM 80 
TO 420 FT. 




WATER FROM THE GRENELLE (PARIS) 
BORING 1798 FT DEEP, WHEN 
CONFJNED IN PIPES, RISES TO 
128 FT ABOVE SURFACE OF 
GROUND. 

\/ 




WATER 
FALLING 
ON THE 
LOWER GREEN 
SAND AT VERDUN 
KEEPS THE FORMA- 
TION charged; itts 
IMPRISONED BY THE 
GA ULT CLAY ABOVE IT. 
ALTITUDE 
OF VERDUN 
ABOUT 635 FEET. 



SCALE FOR HORIZONTAL DISTANCES i.e. ABSCISSAE 

VALUE CONTRACTED GREATLY TO FACILITATE 

GRAPHIC PORTRAYAL OF PRINCIPLE IN SMALL SPACE 

Fig. 4. 

Springs 

A spring is an overflow of water from the earth 
or a stream of water at the place of its source. It 
literally means water which leaps or bounds forth. 
The moisture of the atmosphere falling as rain or 
snow upon the surface of the earth, seeps down- 
ward, percolating through the soil, sand and porous 
beds until its descending travel is arrested by strata 



60 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

of an impervious nature smch as clay or dense rock, 
where it accumulates as a sort of subterranean reser- 
voir. This underground body of water may be 
tapped by wells, or it may find a natural exit where 
the end of the geological stratum has been exposed 
by denudation or by a "fault," and from such a vent 
it may issue forth as a spring. 

There are surface springs and deep seated 
springs, but all are caused by rainfall, ground 
percolation, the downward water flow being stopped 
by impervious strata and a geological formation 
which permits the water to flow to the surface of 
the ground in some place or other. Springs may 
vary in strength from time to time according to the 
extent of the rainfall, for, as an authority has well 
said, "it is evident that as much water comes out of 
the earth in the form of springs (visible and in- 
visible ) as soaks into it ; for like a sponge, when full 
it can hold no more." 

In this connection, it is interesting to note the 
relative degree of porosity of various rocks : 

Absorption of water 

Rock As percentage of weight 

Granite 0.1 to 0.4 

Gypsum 0.5 " 1.5 

Slate 2.0" 10.0 

Sandstone 3.0 " 8.0 

Limestone 5.0 " 8.0 

Chalk 15.0" 20.0 

Plastic Clay 19.0 " 24.0 

Marl and Loam 30.0 " 50.0 

Where a water-bearing stratum with a hydro- 
static pressure, due to its head, is imprisoned be- 
tween two impermeable geological layers or beds 



WATER 61 

and finds its way to the surface, it may act as a 
subterranean river emerging from the ground as 
large or even mammoth springs. In bringing the 
water to the surface, a geological "fault" merely 
takes the place of a series of Artesian wells; the 
impervious strata may slope gently or abruptly 
downward, as shown in Fig. 5, or it may curve, as 

GEOLOGICAL SECTION 
SHOWING THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF 
WELLS AND SPRINGS ETC 

(AFTER COLES -FINCH) 

LINE BETWEEN OUTCROP OF GAULT AND SEA LEVEL 

x LINE OF SATURATION-VARIABLE 

ARTESIAN WELL \ 

ORDINARY DRAW WELL 

DEEPWEUN 

SEA ^ X*rrr7?rffiM!%Mfcift 




Fig. 5. 

in Fig. 4, it being only necessary that the outlet of 
the impermeable bed be lower than that of the inlet 
and below the ground line of saturation. 

Faults or cracks in the earth's formation have 
been caused by upheavals and down-throws during 
the process of the cooling and adjustment of the 
surface of the globe, the liberation of internal gases 
and pressure, etc. They vary in importance accord- 
ing to geological conditions, their extent and the 
effect produced. Darwin mentions the Craven 



62 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

fault 30 miles long with a displacement of from 
600 to 3,000 feet; also a down-throw of 2,300 feet 
in Anglesey and one of 12,000 feet in Merioneth- 
shire, yet on the surface there is nothing to indi- 
cate these vast differences "so completely has sub- 
aerial and littoral action, through the lapse of end- 
less centuries, smoothed down and obliterated all 
surface indications of these mighty movements of 
our earth" — agencies "which seem to work so slowly 
have produced great results." 

Thermal and Mineral Springs 

Thermal springs issue from the earth in a similar 
manner to ordinary springs, but they supply water 
either hot, warm or tepid, being properly classified 
as "Thermal" if they have a temperature in excess 
of the atmosphere in the summer season at the point 
of discharge. 

The following temperatures of certain Thermal 
springs may be of interest : 



Carlsbad 


163.2° F. 


Wiesbaden 


154.4° F. 


Bath— King's WeU 


122.0° F. 


Aix-les-Bains 


109.0° F. to 112° F, 


Bad Gastein 


97.3° F. 


South Bench 


186-8° F. 


Mammoth Springs 


123.8° F. 



Thermal and Mineral springs or, as they are 
often called, Thermal, Saline, Medicinal or 
Remedial Springs, have been known and used 
throughout the Age of Culture and Tradition. 
These waters have been classified as follows: 







WATER 63 


No. 


Name 


Important Content or Virtue 


1. 


Thermal 


Heat, 


2. 


Muriated 


Common Salt, 


3. 


Alkaline 


Carbonate of Sodium, 


4. 


Sulphated 


Sodium Sulphite (Glauber's salt) or 
Magnesium Sulphite (Epsom salts), 


5. 


Chalybeate 


Iron, 


6. 


Arsenical 


Arsenic, 


7. 


Sulphur 


Sulphuret of Hydrogen, Sodium, 
Calcium, Potassium or Magnesia, 


8. 


Calcareous 


Earthy Substance. 



Water in descending, percolating and rising 
through various geological formations may en- 
counter mineral masses and become somewhat im- 
pregnated with gaseous, saline or metallic admix- 
tures, which impart to the water peculiar prop- 
erties. All substances are, to a certain extent, 
soluble in or acted on by water and air. The 
quantity dissolved is affected by the surface ex- 
posed and by the time of contact, also by the de- 
gree of solubility of the substance and the presence 
of accessories, like oxygen and carbonic acid. The 
solubility of substances, with certain exceptions, 
(notably Sulphate of Lime) increase with rising 
temperature and pressure, hence Rideal points out 
that many thermal deep springs contain abnormal 
amounts of dissolved ingredients, such as silica, 
which are deposited as crusts on exposure to air. 
Water heavily charged with minerals or salts, other 
than common salt, are properly termed Mineral 
waters and are usually named after the place of 
their emergence and technically classified according 
to the predominant constituent. Saline and Min- 
eral waters come mainly from volcanic strata. The 



64 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

springs usually disengage a large quantity of 
various gases, including some of the rarer ones, 
and are often effervescent from the escape of car- 
bonic acid which may have been generated by 

1. Oxidation of carbonaceous material. 

2. Action of heat on Calcium Carbonate, (limestone, 
marble, chalk) or on other carbonates, 

3. Decomposition of these by acids — even silicic and 
boric can decompose them at high temperatures. 

Rideal states that no exact classification of saline 
and medicinal springs is feasible, since in most cases 
each of them contains some proportion of the char- 
acteristic ingredients of another group, but he sug- 
gests arranging them under the following heads, 
according to the most important constituents : 

( 1, Alkaline 

A. Carbonated 1 2. Magnesian 

[ 3- Calcareous 

B. Chalybeate Iron water 

p M j Salt, sometimes 

J Potassium Chloride 

)1. Sulphate of Soda 
2- Bitter; Sulphate 
of Magnesia 

E. Bromide or Iodide 

F. Sulphuretted or Hepatic 

G. Arsenical 
H. Lithia. 

Mineral springs are found in the mountains, val- 
leys and arising from the bottom of the ocean. 
They exist in the Rockies, the Sierras, are found 
on Alpine Heights and under the snow in the 
Himalayas. 



WATER 65 

Water Diviner 

The use of a divining-rod for discovering some- 
thing hidden is apparently of immemorial antiquity. 
The forked twig of hazel or willow used for "dows- 
ing" or "divining" is described by Agricola known 
as the "Father of Mineralogy," also by Sebastian 
Munster in the 16th Century. At that time it was 
employed in searching for mineral veins, but "by 
the skilled miner, who trusted to natural signs of 
mineral veins, they were regarded as of no avail at 
all." A belief in the efficacy of divining-rods for 
the discovery of concealed objects is mentioned in 
old Jewish writings, and the Roman Virgula divina, 
as used in taking auguries by means of sticks, is 
described by Cicero and Tacitus. It was mentioned 
by Valentine, the Alchemist of the 15th Century, 
and is said to have first been extensively used in a 
modern sense by the Germans, when prospecting 
for minerals in the Harz Mountains. The divining- 
rod was said by Boyle (1663) and Pryce (1778) 
to have value in discovering metals, but is it not 
strange that the same dowser would search with the 
same apparatus for any buried objects? When 
mining declined in Cornwall, England, the diviner 
transferred his attention to water finding. Valle- 
mont wrote at the end of the 17th Century that the 
divining-rod of hazel (baguette divinataire) was 
an instrument used in the pursuit of criminals and 
heretics. Its abuse led to a decree in 1701 forbid- 
ding its employment for purposes of justice. The 
Jesuit Vaniere (early 18th Century \ amusingly 
wrote describing how he exposed the chicanery of a 
dowser who claimed by the aid of a hazel divining- 
rod, to locate hidden water courses and precious 



66 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

metals. In modern times the professional dowser is 
a "water finder." His predecessors in the art have 
progressed through the various stages of fortune 
telling, metal searching, criminal hunting and the 
location of buried treasures. The romance of the 
ages would fittingly place the supposed virtue of 
the hazel twig as analogous to the fairy wand, the 
fabled staff of Mercury or Hermes, or the golden 
arrow of Albaris, but we are told by enthusiastic 
believers that the divining-rod is a practical instru- 
ment and of far more than mythological or super- 
stitious interest. These are not the "days of 
miracles," nature's laws are immutable and they 
do not permit of jokes or relapses from a plane of 
unchanging sanity. 

The hazel divining-rod, with its supposed magical 
powers, is an analogue to the witch's broom stick, 
the burning of hazel nuts for the magical investiga- 
tion of the future and the planchette of that class of 
divination branded as spiritualism. Prof. Barrett, 
of England, has written "I have no hesitation in 
saying that where fissure water exists and the dis- 
covery of underground water sufficient for a 
domestic supply is a matter of the utmost difficulty, 
the chances of success with a good dowser far exceed 
mere lucky hits." An investigator fittingly asks, "Is 
this due to any special faculty in the dowser or has 
the twig itself anything to do with it ?" Much of the 
work of the diviner, if not all, is mere stageplay and 
the theory advanced that there is any direct con- 
nection (sympathy, electrical, magnetic, mechani- 
cal vibrations or otherwise) between the forked 
twig and the water, metal, jewels, criminal or any 
lost object of any nature, is thoroughly repudiated 



WATER 67 

by science. Professors Barrett and Janet ap- 
parently both ascribe the phenomenon to "motor- 
automatism" on the part of the "diviner," or in other 
words a "reflex action excited by some stimulus 
upon his mind, which may be either a subconscious 
suggestion or an actual impression, obscure in its 
nature, from an external object or an external 
mind." This is a charitable attempt at an explana- 
tion. The divining-rod being thus "an indication 
of any subconscious suggestion or impression," may 
operate fallaciously and if the mind of the dowser 
is the important factor in the search, why bother 
hunting for a hazel twig before going into what is 
apparently a sort of half-baked trance of divina- 
tion? A writer has said that "the dowser's power 
lies beneath the level of any conscious perception 
and the function of the forked twig is to act as an 
index of some material or other mental disturbance 
within him which otherwise he could not interpret." 
This wonderful invisible force can suddenly and 
violently move the dowser's hands. Why can he 
not put out two fingers and see his fingers twist or 
would that method of expressing forces, psycho- 
logically recorded, lack in dramatics and be in- 
sufficient because of the absence of some tangible 
symbol of magic ? It is said that some dowsers use 
a willow, beech or holly twig ; others even a piece of 
wire or watch-spring, and one investigator makes 
the pithy statement "The best dowsers are said to 
have been generally more or less illiterate men, 
usually engaged in some humble vocation." The 
theory has been advanced and accepted by many, 
that dowsers are exceptionally sensitive to hygro- 
metric influences. What has this attempted ex- 



68 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

planation to say about dowsers who locate iron, 
buried treasures or even criminals and non-be- 
lievers in churchly creeds? It is difficult to recon- 
cile the affinity of a dowser for water with the 
claimed locater of minerals, valuables, fugitives 
from justice or men of heterodox beliefs. 

Witchcraft has been relegated to oblivion but 
superstition, a similar relic of barbarism, dies hard. 
Implanted in the human mind for thousands and 
thousands of years, its imprint is difficult to eradi- 
cate, especially as man is prone to accept beliefs 
without the exercise of his inherent reasoning power. 
The searchers for water with a divining-rod must 
be supplanted by a trained engineer, who works not 
with a talismanic or magical instrument of the 
fanatical or supernatural, but with a definite, scien- 
tific and geological knowledge of the district to be 
investigated, coupled with practical skill, the 
cognition that comes from technical training and 
experience and the whole blended with a most ad- 
mirable quality popularly designated as common 
sense. 

Rivers 

A river is a stream of water flowing in a definite 
channel or bed to the ocean, a sea, lake or into 
another stream. A river is generally a large or con- 
siderable stream of water, smaller streams of a 
similar nature being designated as tributaries, 
rivulets, brooks, creeks, rills, etc. The size of 
rivers above any tidal limit and their average fresh 
water discharge are proportionate to the extent of 
their basins and the amount of rain which falling 
over these basins, reaches the river channels in the 



WATER 69 

bottom of the valleys, by which it is conveyed di- 
rectly or indirectly to the sea. The basin of a river 
is the expanse of country bounded by a winding 
ridge of high ground over which the rainfall 
naturally tends to fall toward the river traversing 
the lowest part of the valley. The proportion of 
rain falling on a river basin, which actually reaches 
the river, depends very largely on the nature of the 
geological and surface strata, the slope of the 
ground, extent of its "vegetation" covering and the 
season of the year. It is said that "the available 
rainfall has been found to vary from 75 per cent, 
of the actual rainfall on impermeable, bare, slop- 
ing, rocky strata to about 15 per cent, on flat, very 
permeable soils." Rivers rise close to the highest 
part of their basins, generally in hilly regions ; their 
fall is rapid near their source and rapidly dimin- 
ishes ; they begin mostly as relatively small torrents 
with irregular flow, and end when they drain large 
basins, as gently flowing rivers with a compara- 
tively uniform discharge. The velocity of a river 
depends upon the inclination of its bed and partly 
on the volume of water, and it varies throughout its 
course accordingly. It has been said that the 
swiftest portion of a river is about one-third of the 
way below its suface, the mean velocity is found at 
about one-tenth of its depth from the surface, and 
at the bottom the velocity is the least. The "trans- 
porting" power of water depends upon its velocity 
and investigators tell us that it increases as the sixth 
power of the velocity, or, if the velocity be doubled, 
the motive or transporting power increases sixty- 
four fold. 

The following table has been prepared to illus- 



70 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

trate the carrying power of moving waters, with 
regard to solid matter in suspension : 

Rate of Flow in Nature of solid matter 

feet per minute that can be transported 

15 Fine mud 

30 Fine sand. 

40 Sand the size of a pea. 

60 Fine gravel. 

120 Round pebbles 1 inch in diameter. 

180 Angular stones as large as a hen's egg. 

Turbid waters are those which are muddy and 
thick, i. e., those in which the natural sediment or 
foreign matter held in suspension is kept disturbed 
so that it cannot readily settle. The velocity of 
rivers and flowing water tends to maintain the con- 
dition of turbidity, whereas tranquil, stationary 
waters would tend to overcome it by gravity 
settling. Next to the prime sanitary or hygienic 
properties of water, there is no feature of more gen- 
eral interest and importance than turbidity. All 
river waters are more or less turbid, but they vary 
greatly in degree, the difference being primarily 
due to the general character or nature of the catch- 
ment areas. The Merrimac and Connecticut rivers 
in New England, draining areas largely covered 
with glacial drift of a sandy character, are but little 
subject to turbidity. It is said that they do not 
carry more than 10 parts per million of suspended 
matter, as an average, throughout the year. The 
Missouri river, on the other hand, is a turbid stream, 
carrying the largest amount of sediment of any of 
the American rivers which are largely used as a 
source of water supply. Investigators report that 



WATER 71 

this river carries 5,000 parts of solids in suspension 
per million during midsummer, 200 parts as a 
minimum during the winter season and has an 
average throughout the year of from 1200 to 1500. 
The amount of mud or matter carried in suspension 
by certain well known rivers has been determined 
and reported as follows : 





Parts of Solid Matter 


Rivers 


Per Million 


Thames 


30 


Rhine 


500 


Mississippi 


1460 


Nile 


1600 


Ganges 


1940 


Tiber 


4560 


Hoang-ho 


5000 



It has been computed that the Ganges, during 
122 days of the rainy season carries to sea — a dis- 
tance of 500 miles — 340,000,000 tons of mud; the 
Thames, a very small river, is said to carry to the 
sea no less than 450,000 tons of salts in solution per 
annum. So the combined mud, salts and matter in 
solution and suspension carried by large rivers 
annually to the ocean, seem in magnitude to be 
almost beyond comprehension. We are told that 
the total denudation of England (or the washing 
away of the country into the sea by means of its 
rivers) is one foot for every 3,500 years, the 
quantity estimated to be passed in a state of solu- 
tion only, being on the basis of one foot lowering of 
its surface each 12,000 years. 

The amount of solid matter (i. e., matter in 



72 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

suspension and not in a state of solution) deposited 
by certain rivers per annum has been computed as : 



Thames 


1,865,000 Cubic Feet 


Danube 


67,000,000 


Rhine 


600,000,000 " 


Mississippi 


6,000,000,000 


Ganges 


6,370,000,000 " 



The delta of the Mississippi river has an area of 
12,300 sq. miles, and a well sunk at New Orleans, 
620 ft. deep encountered only an alluvial deposit. 
The delta of the river Po in Italy has increased its 
area 198 sq. miles in the last six centuries. The 
Ganges, 200 miles from its mouth, spreads out 
forming a mighty delta with the fine silt brought 
down the Ganges and Brahmapootra rivers; the 
area is about 60,000 sq. miles and the bottom of the 
deposit is not reached at 480 ft. 

Turbid waters are not an acceptable form of 
necessary water supply for either domestic or in- 
dustrial purposes. Fortunately, however, storage 
or the impounding of water facilitates the settling 
of matter held in suspension. 

The following figures, based on Flad's observa- 
tions, show the rate of settlement of silt in Missis- 
sippi water : 

Time of Storage Percentage of Suspended 



in Hours 


Matter Left in Liquid 





100. 


24 


5.5 


48 


3.3 


96 


3. 



Rideal's experiments of "short period" settling 
of turbid waters gave the following results : 





WATER 




Time of 


Percentage 


Time of 


Percentage 


Storage 


of Suspended 


Storage 


of Suspended 


in 


Matter left 


in 


Matter left 


Hours 


in Liquid 


Hours 


in Liquid 


y 2 


58 


6 


26 


i 


37 


8 


24 


2 


32 


10 


22 


4 


28.5 


12 


20 



73 



As an illustration of the extent of impurities in 
the river water used as a source of water supply for 
a large city, the following extract from the 1914 
report of the Sewerage and Water Board of New 
Orleans, La., is given : 

"During the year, 8,147 million gallons were 
treated at the Carrolton plant and 295 million gal- 
lons at the Algiers plant. This amount of water 
carried 21,300 tons of suspended matter, all of 
which was removed, and 3,800 tons of hardening 
constituents, about one-half of which was removed. 
3,058 tons of lime and 188 tons of sulphate of iron 
were required to soften and prepare this water for 
filtration." 

The great advantage of having a constant and 
liberal water supply, such as is presented by large 
rivers, is unfortunately overbalanced by the liability 
to pollution of the river, through sewage and manu- 
facturing waste being discharged into it from the 
towns, cities and factories that locate themselves 
upon its banks. The more thickly populated a river 
basin and the more "developed" or artificial in its 
use and manipulation a catchment area or water- 
shed becomes, the more contaminated, insalubrious 
and noxious becomes the water. Rivers as a gen- 
eral rule flowing through any "settled" country are 



74 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

so polluted that their direct use as sources of pot- 
able water is fraught with much danger. Much of 
the danger to health is avoided by drawing water 



Typhoid Fever Deaths per 100.000 
1887- 1909 Lawrence, Moss . 


ten 




AIO > A 




/on J \ ^ 




J/0 i § 




10Q \ § 




1 * 

9n Ym 




.jFIQ \ 


■ 


70 \ 




CO \ 




*5Q \ 




40 \ 




„J0 \ 


A a J 


?o \ 


A-A-£-3 


/n 1 


f -fc — "* v ^ 




([ U v^ M T C N H 
(TOCCCCQCCCQC 



Fig. 6. 

from the rivers at points well up the stream and 
higher than the known point of contamination, dis- 
charging such water into impounding reservoirs 



WATER 



75 



and supplying the district in need of water only 
after the water has had the benefit of storage-sedi- 
mentation and natural partial purification. A 
noted sanitation engineer voiced the sentiment of 
his profession when he said, however, that "A river 
or other water once known to have been polluted 
with sewage (or noxious manufacturing waste) is 
not fit for drinking purposes without special puri- 
fication.' ' And again, "From an hygienic stand- 
point the succession of cities and manufacturing 
establishments on the same river and the combined 
use of a river as a sewer and source of water supply 
is most significant. On some rivers like the Merri- 
mac, Hudson, Delaware, Ohio, Missouri and Mis- 
sissippi this succession is particularly impressive 
and when the water has been used in its raw or un- 
purified state, sickness and death have resulted and 
thousands of lives have been lost." 

The following large cities in the United States 
take their water supply from rivers : 









Urban Population 










per sq. mile of 


City 


Population 
1910 




River 


Drainage Area 
above Intake 






1 


Delaware 


44 


Philadelphia 


1,550,000 


Schuylkill 


134 


St. Louis 


687,000 




Mississippi 


8 


Pittsburgh 


534,000 




Allegheny 


27 


Cincinnati 


364,000 




Ohio 


32 


New Orleans 


339,000 




Mississippi 


10 



Among the smaller cities of 100,000 to 250,000 
inhabitants we find the urban population per square 



76 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

mile of drainage or catchment area above the intake 
of the water supply as follows : 



Albany 


57 


Indianapolis 


42 


Louisville 


36 


Paterson 


32 


Toledo 


23 



Allen Hazen says, "It is possible to purify 
sewage before discharging it into rivers. If all the 
cities and towns purified their sewage, and if all 
manufacturing establishments (which sometimes 
contribute as much as the cities to the pollution of 
the streams) did the same, then the river waters of 
the country would be less polluted and would be 
more desirable as sources of public water supply." 
* * * "Looking at the whole matter as one great 
engineering problem, it is clearly and unmistakably 
better to purify the water supplies taken from the 
rivers than to purify the sewage before it is dis- 
charged into them. It is much cheaper to do it this 
way. The volume to be handled is less, and, per 
million gallons, the cost of purifying water is much 
less than the cost of purifying sewage" — as well as 
being more effective. Again, all and not part 
would be treated. Hazen also adds, "One dollar 
spent in purifying the water would do as much good 
as ten dollars spent in sewage purification." 

Lakes 

A lake is a large body of water, not a part of the 
ocean, contained in a depression of the earth's sur- 
face; — it is a natural reservoir. Smaller bodies of 
water of a similar nature are termed ponds. Lakes 
may consist of either fresh or salt water, but for our 



WATER 



77 



present purposes, we are only concerned with the 
former, because of their use in furnishing man 
occasionally with his required supply of drinking 
water. Lakes occur in all altitudes and the primary 
source of lake water is atmospherical precipitation. 
The chain of Great Lakes of North America can 
be briefly dimensioned as follows : 













Volume in 




Length in 


Depth 


in ft. 


Area in 


Million 


Name 


Miles 


Max. 


Mean. 


Sq. Miles 


Cubic feet 


Superior 


412 


1012 


475 


31,200 


413,000,000 


Huron 


263 


730 


250 


23,800 


166,000,000 


Michigan 


335 


864 


325 


22,450 


203,000,000 


Erie 


240 


210 


70 


9,960 


19,500,000 


Ontario 


190 


738 


300 


7,240 


61,000,000 



The water sheds have an area of 202,935 sq. 
miles land surface and 95,037 sq. miles water sur- 
face, or an aggregate of 297,972 sq. miles. The 
mean elevation above sea level is as follows : 



Superior 602 ft. 


Erie 


573 ft 


Michigan and Huron 581 ft. 


Ontario 


246 ft 



George R. Whipple, of Harvard University, in 
a paper read in the early fall of 1912 said: "More 
than 5,000,000 people live in cities and towns near 
the shores of our Great Lakes. Most of these com- 
munities take their water supplies from the lakes 
and discharge their sewage into them. Except 
where the water supply has been purified before 
being used, this practice has very severely affected 
the health of the lake cities and has been the cause 
of much loss of life. With our present sanitary 
knowledge, it seems strange that such a filthy prac- 
tice should ever have been tolerated. It is still more 
strange that raw lake water should continue to be 



78 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



used in cities which are doing so much in other ways 
to improve public hygienic conditions." 

The pollution of the Great Lakes is greatest at 

Cleveland, Ohio, Typhoid Fever Deaths per 100,000 population 
by years, 1873 to 1910 




Fig. 7. 



WATER 79 

the south end of Lake Michigan, where several 
cities, including Chicago, are comparatively close 
together and also located on the lake front. The 
lake water away from the shore, or in the broad 
waters of the lake, is generally of very good quality ; 
the amount of organic matter is small, the color is 
low and the water is tasteless, inodorous and com- 
paratively soft, but near the land it is often exceed- 
ingly bad. 

Barnard and Brewster, at the south end of Lake 
Michigan, found the following number of bacteria 
in 1908: 



Distance from the 


Average 


number of Bacteria 


shore in miles 


per < 


2ubic centimetre 


Oto 1 




174,000 


1 




15,000 


2 




6,600 


3 




5,800 


4 




4,400 


5 




1,000 


6 




200 



The following table of solids and the relative 
hardness of the waters of the Great Lakes may 
prove of interest: 













b0 












8 S 












s *S 




u 


a 






fl) cc 




o 



CO 


«3 

•P-l 


a 

o 
u 






St. Law 
it Ogde 


Dissolved Solid 












parts per 100,000 


8.7 


11.8 


10.8 


13.3 


13.4 


Total Hardness 












degrees. Clark 


3.2 


6.9 


6.2 


7.6 


7.5 



Permanent Hardness 

degrees. Clark 0.15 0.52 0.45 0.94 0.87 



80 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The number of bacteria in the broads of the 
lakes is almost invariably small; the counts are 
below 100 per c.c. for the greater part of the year, 
and in the summer months are much lower. Bac- 
terial life in both salt and fresh water (seas and 
lakes ) decreases in general as one passes downward 
from the surface and outward from the shore. 
Drew in 1912 found high numbers of bacteria in 
surface waters off the Bahamas — 13,000 to 16,000 
— falling off in the cool waters (50° F.) encountered 
200 fathoms deep to 17 per c.c. and even less. 

Otto and Neumann, in 1904, obtained the follow- 
ing results at various points of the Atlantic Ocean, 
showing that bacterial numbers decrease as the 
depth below the surface increases : 







Bacteria 


per C. 


C. 


Depth in Meters 


5 


50 


100 


200 


Off Canary Islands 


120 


76 


20 


1 


Cape Verde Islands 


58 


16 


64 


6 


" St. Paul Islands 


20 


480 


54 


4 


" Pernambuco 


48 


168 


83 


14 



Near the European Coast the bacterial numbers 
were much higher. 

Most of the cities located on the shores of the 
Great Lakes draw their water from this source. 
Large cities, such as Chicago and Cleveland, run 
their intakes as far as 4 or 5 miles into the lake and 
many of the smaller cities have intakes which pro- 
ject into the lake from 1 to 1% miles. The depth 
of the intake straining cribs below the surface is 
stated as follows : 

Oswego 83 ft. Milwaukee 60 ft. 

Toronto 68 ft, Chicago 27 to 40 ft. 











WATER 










81 




f9/o 






















g 


09 






















08 


















J« 




07 
















/' 






1 

1 


06 
















c 






05 
















\ 


^ 




04 


















*> 




OS 


















/ 




02 


















J 




Of 
















< 


r 




1900 


















s 




1 

§ 

fc 


99 


















/ 

1 




98 


















1 




97 


















> 




96 


/ 


few M 


taket 


woo 


feetj 


*rom . 


//ore 


* 


s 




95 




/ 


nSO 


feet 


o/ivc 


ter 




t 






9* 
















} 






93 














< 








92 














\ 


1 






9/ 














J 








^ 


/890 














<T 








39 














^^* 


u 






P 


88 












-1 


^^ 








87 














N 










86 














4 


I 






j^V 


85 
















> 








8* 














•: 


f 

v 






1 


03 
















> 






8Z 














.--•' 


r 






8/ 












< 










/880 












^ 


N. 








79 














^ 


V 






78 
















> 






| 


77 














/^ 








76 


Chang* 


*/?omir 


UlsjOi 


o/ce m 


iter £ t 


'OO/re 


fk^ 








7S 


froms 


boreM 


/8fe* 


toft 


'ater. 












1 


7* 




















73 






















72 




••^s 


















7/ 










■B* 










/8 70 




•i 


















9 


s 


7 


9 6 


5 


4 


J 


2 


o > 


c 



Death Rate per 100,000 
Fig. 8. 



82 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Chicago and Cleveland have suffered from the 
mingling of their own sewage with their water 
supply. Both lakes are comparatively shallow in 
the vicinity of these cities, and the waters are stirred 
to their depths by heavy winds fully as far out as 
the water intakes have been built ; Lake Erie, more- 
over, is very shallow. Both cities have spent mil- 
lions of dollars driving tunnels out under the 
bottom of the lakes for the purpose of securing 
water free from contamination, and Chicago has cut 
a large drainage canal at a cost of over $40,000,000 
to keep her sewage from entering the lake, taking 
it instead through tributaries to the Mississippi 
River. But even now the lake waters are polluted 
for a long distance out and the putrid refuse and 
contaminated discharge from a large city is being 
inflicted upon the inhabitants living on the banks of 
America's largest and dirtiest river. Chicago's dis- 
position of her sewage problem can hardly be 
branded as unselfish; the rights of others do not 
seem to have been seriously considered and the 
City's Act certainly savors more of arbitrary 
despotism than altruism. The people should de- 
mand sewage and garbage disposal plants and 
sterilized drinking water and this is procurable and 
is fully as necessary, if not more so, than other im- 
portant items of municipal expense for which the 
citizens are taxed. Both Chicago and Cleveland 
have failed to obtain thoroughly good wholesome 
water, and the expenses incurred, without proper 
filtration and purification or sterilization, have failed 
to provide a reliable guard against water-borne dis- 
ease. "Both cities have suffered severely at times, 
and perhaps a little all the time, from sickness and 
death caused by the pollution of the Lake water by 



WATER 



83 



their own sewage" and manufacturing waste. In the 
smaller cities along the Lakes, the mingling of the 
sewage and water may be relatively just as im- 
portant as in the large ones. The plan is equally 

Typhoid Fever Death Rates jn ChcggoJII. 
by years /66//0/9/0 





7z *< 
I70 % 


Q SJ T <C N <£ 

<C <C co q; cc cc 


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$ 


$ 


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3S"q!8$ 




IBS 




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/fsn 




t --. 
















155 




I 
















150 




r : 
















145 




tk- 














$ 


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tt- 














£ 


1X5 




r_ 














*■ 


125 




L. 














$ 




l_ 














^ 


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j_. 














■S 


1/5 




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no 




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— 4- 














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no \ 




t j 














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75 \ 




t r 














70 


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4: 1 














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: 





Fig. 9. 



VICIOUS. 



Small cities have generally less money to 
spend, their intakes do not go out so far and their 
sewers are apt to discharge at the nearest point, 
without regard to the location of the fresh water 
intake. 



84 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



The Quantity of Water Consumed by American Cities 

The following table of the amount of water sup- 
plied various American cities during some recent 
years, for which the figures are available, has also 
been prepared to show the consumption per capita 
and the general effect of selling water to the con- 
sumer by the number of faucets or by quantity 







Gallons per 


Percentage of 


Place 


Year 


capita daily 


services metered 


Buffalo 


1912 


334 


5 


Chicago 


1911 


235 


4 


Pittsburgh 


1910 


235 


11 


Philadelphia 


1911 


202 


4 


Detroit 


1910 


177 


10 


Washington 


1912 


175 


3 


Boston 


1912 


125 


35 


Cincinnati 


1911 


125 


48 


St. Louis 


1911 


118 


7 


Cleveland 


1912 


113 


98 


Milwaukee 


1912 


113 


99 


Newark 


1911 


107 


54 


Louisville 


1911 


105 


7 


New York 


1912 


104 


25 


Minneapolis 


1912 


81 


59 


Worcester 


1911 


68 


97 


Hartford, 


1911 


66 


98 


Providence 


1911 


65 


89 


St. Paul 


1911 


60 


53 


Lowell 


1912 


50 


82 


Lawrence 


1911 


46 


92 


Fall River 


1911 


44 


99 



There are 204 cities in the United States having 
an estimated population in excess of 30,000 and of 
these, 155 report Municipal ownership of their 
water supply system. The following table from 
Government statistics gives the average water con- 
sumption of these cities, the amount supplied per 



WATER 



85 



capita and the relation of consumption to the per- 
centage of water metered. 





Water 




Water 






Supplied 




Supplied 




Number 


in Million 




Per Capita Percentage 


of 


Gallons 


Population 


(Gallons) 


of Water 


Cities 


Per Year 


Served 


Per Day 


Metered 


26 


56,324 


1,805,476 


85 


100 


23 


115,822 


2,905,871 


109 


90-99 


6 


28,286 


605,358 


128 


80-89 


13 


71,116 


1,879,807 


103 


70-79 


14 


57,973 


1,404,234 


113 


60-69 


13 


50,304 


1,174,114 


117 


50-59 


9 


108,294 


2,153,952 


138 


40-49 


15 


135,836 


2,020,964 


184 


30-39 


15 


473,425 


9,159,427 


142 


20-29 


8 


74,314 


866,587 


235 


. 10-19 


13 


157,712 
1,329,406 


2,216,595 
26,192,385 


195 


0- 9 


155 


139 





The following table gives the water consumption 
of the same 155 cities arranged by geographical 
divisions : 

Total Quantity of Water Water 







Supplied in 




Supplied 




Number 


Million 




per Capita 


Geographical 


of 


Gallons 


Population 


(Gallons) 


Division 


Cities 


per Year 


Served 


per Day 


New England 


30 


96,244 


3,103,454 


85 


Middle Atlantic 


32 


529,492 


10,201,654 


142 


South Atlantic 


14 


86,138 


1,730,965 


136 


East-North-Central 32 


373,737 


6,051,259 


169 


West-North-Central 14 


81,723 


1,983,624 


113 


East-South-Central 9 


30,885 


778,783 


109 


West-South-Central 10 


26,900 


819,378 


90 


Mountain States 


4 


15,739 


190,380 


226 


Pacific 


10 


88,548 


1,332,888 


182 


United States 


155 


1,329,406 


26,192,385 


139 



86 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

America is wasteful, recklessly extravagant in 
general mode of life and viciously prodigal of her 
resources. We are both blessed and cursed by 
living in a wonderful New Land of great bounty 
and natural wealth. Our fire loss per capita and 
our water consumption are both suggestive of 
national carelessness or indifference. The quanti- 
ties of water supplied per capita in other large cities 
are included herewith for the purpose of com- 
parison : 



Berlin 


1909 


22 Gallons 


Dresden 


1909 


26 


" 


Copenhagen 


1909 


29 


<( 


Amsterdam 


1905 


37 


<< 


Sydney 


1905 


39 


<« 


London 


1908 


41 


<< 


Liverpool 


1912 


44 


<< 



Many authorities on Hygiene and Sanitation 
maintain that the health of the individual, family 
and community demands that the available supply 
of water, whether urban or rural, should be abund- 
ant and convenient. Dr. Bolton of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture says, "For sanitary purposes 
it is essential that the water should be in such 
quantity that there is no need for stinting in any 
direction. It is essential to have abundance for per- 
sonal cleanliness, for the laundry, for washing 
utensils and for the premises generally. It should 
be abundant at all seasons. The importance of the 
unrestricted use of water is so great that some 
hygienists condemn the use of water meters in 
private houses, in cities with a central water supply, 
because many people are apt to stint themselves if 
the water is paid for by the amount used." 



WATER 87 

There is enough truth in such statements to make 
them worthy of consideration, but not enough to 
cause one to modify the statement that Americans 
are extremely and unnecessarily wasteful in their 
use of water. Vernon Harcourt says that twenty- 
five gallons per day is a reasonable average amount 
of water per person and Dr. Bolton, quoting, ap- 
parently concurs. This is about the quantity used 
in large German cities whose health statistics in 
many respects are vastly superior to ours. We 
suffer in America far more from diseases caused by 
filth and pollution than do the inhabitants of 
Northern Europe. No one possibly would advo- 
cate a water consumption as low as fifteen gallons 
per person per day, which is said to be the con- 
sumption in Vienna, Austria, but there is a great 
difference between Harcourt's estimate of twenty- 
five gallons and what is used in the modern health- 
ful cities of Europe on the one hand, as against the 
American average of one hundred and forty gallons 
of water per capita for one hundred and fifty-five 
cities located all over this country. 

It is difficult to explain the enormous wasteful- 
ness of water in most American cities; the con- 
sumption in many cases is so great that pronounced 
ingenuity in prodigality as well as extreme reck- 
lessness must be displayed. Families living in good 
circumstances in the suburbs, with large gardens to 
care for, an average of two persons (adults and 
children) for each bathroom, and all laundry work 
done upon the premises for two years, averaged 
without being subjected to any restriction, fifty- 
seven gallons per person per day. Residents of our 
cities and all people in poorer circumstances, 
(urban, suburban and rural) naturally consume 



88 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

very much less, and it seems reasonable to suppose 
that an average water consumption for the aggre- 
gate population of any large city, including all the 
water used for normal municipal purposes, should 
not exceed fifty or sixty gallons per person per day, 
or less than forty per cent, of that actually reported 
in 155 of our largest cities and only 16.5% of that 
reported by our most extravagant and wasteful city. 

Sedimentation, Sand and Mechanical Filtration 

The water stored in large reservoirs not only 
parts with much of its silt or solid matter in suspen- 
sion, but also with the larger portion of its con- 
tained bacteria, the majority being carried down 
apparently by the silt to which they have attached 
themselves and "the remainder for the most part 
perishing for lack of adequate food supply and sub- 
sequently sinking." 

This impounding of water with gravity settling 
is known as Sedimentation. It is used extensively 
by British Engineers, some of whom maintain that 
they have no further need to filter or treat their 
water, and advise for bacterial safety, reservoirs 
capable of holding from two weeks to one month's 
supply of water. The storage for the water of the 
city of London has increased in capacity 6.3 fold in 
24 years. It has been said that the main difference 
between British and German Sanitary Engineers is 
that the former rely more upon sedimentation and 
storage and the latter upon filtration, or some other 
process. Rideal says, "Neither is reliable unless the 
'some other process' consists of real sterilization, 
which saves storage and simplifies filtration." In 
the United States the solid matter in water is said 
to be relatively very slow in depositing, therefore, 



WATER 89 

sedimentation is assisted by the addition of chemi- 
cals which "by coagulation and agglutination of 
the refractory matter, produces more or less rapid 
precipitation, and the settling basin with its chemi- 
cal tank is an almost invariable adjunct to the 
various types of American Filter plants." Whipple 
has said that Sand Filters are especially applicable 
to relatively clear water, and Mechanical Filters to 
waters that are turbid for a considerable portion of 
the time and he adds, "In general, practice has fol- 
lowed this classification." The first cost of a Me- 
chanical Filter plant is considerably less than that 
of Slow Sand and occupies but a fraction of the 
area, while the operating costs are considerably 
higher, due largely to the necessity of using a 
coagulant in the mechanical process. It is said that 
Sand Beds pass about 2% million gallons of water 
per acre per 24 hours, whereas Mechanical Filters 
pass 100 million gallons. Mechanical Filtration is 
the prevalent and popular system in the United 
States where low cost and quick action are par- 
ticularly appealing and it is said that 70 per cent. 
of the water supply of the country is thus purified. 
Sand Filtration plants, originally installed to 
free the water of solid matter held in suspension, 
soon proved their worth in this direction and, in 
addition, demonstrated that they operated to reduce 
the bacterial content of the water. In 1892 Ham- 
burg was visited by a frightful cholera epidemic. 
Hamburg drew its water from the River Elbe, well 
above the city, and had no filtration plant. It dis- 
charged its sewage into the river and the town of 
Altona took its drinking water from the Elbe 
polluted by the great city of Hamburg. Altona 
used sand filters and their efficiency was clearly 



90 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



demonstrated when the cholera death rate of Altona 
was 221 per 100,000, whereas in Hamburg it was 
1,250 per 100,000. 

Typhoid Fever Deaths per. 100.000 
1396- 1909, Albany^N. X 



■iZO 



1 //0 
































1 too 


\ 






























90 


\ 


V 


A 


V 


I 






















80 










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5 






















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. 30 










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0) 


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0) 

s 


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o 


o 

0) 


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0) 


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0) 


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51 
1 


^0 
Q 
0) 


o 

0) 


K 
O 
0) 


00 
O 
0) 


o 

0) 




0) 



Fig. 10. 



WATER 91 

At Albany, N. Y., using water from the Hudson 
lliver, the Typhoid mortality rate was 88.8 per 
100,000 before the introduction of Sand Filters, 
and 23.7 afterwards. In 1885 Dr. Koch's bacterial 
water experiments indicated that under the condi- 
tions of the tests, the sand filtration process removed 
99 per cent, of the total microbes present in un- 
filtered water. 

The London Water Board's Report of 1913 gives 
the following bacterial content of waters per c.c. be- 
fore and after sand filtration : 





Thames 


Lee 


New River 


Eaw water 


5250 


9263 


2172 


Filtered water 


16.1 


309 


14.1 


Percentage of reduction 


99.7 


99.6 


99.3 



The Municipal Filtration Plant in Paris handles 
10 million gallons of foul water per day pumped 
from the Seine. The total time for slow sand filtra- 
tion treatment is 42 hours, and the following figures 
show the average results obtained for a period of 
six months : 

Total Bacteria per c.c. after 15 days Incubation 
Average Maximum Minimum 

Raw Seine water 53,533 144,300 4,500 

Filtered water 33 82 6 

The Magdeburg Municipal Laboratory testing 
the turbid and highly polluted water of the River 
Elbe before and after sand filtration, gives the fol- 
lowing average bacterial results for a month (Nov., 
1910) : 

Total Bacteria per c.c. after 48 hrs. Incubation 

Average Maximum Minimum 

Raw Elbe water 43,523 144,000 4,200 

Filtered water 5.65 18. 1 



92 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Mechanical Filters are popularly known as the 
"Rapid" or American type. The slow sand filters 
owe their bacterial reducing efficiency to the forma- 
tion of a film of living growth and the first part of 
the sand impregnated with bacterial life, purifies 
the water passing through. A new clean sand filter 
is not efficient from the standpoint of water puri- 
fication. Mechanical Filters might fittingly be 
termed "Inorganic" filters, and Slow Sand Filters 
"Organic" filters, Mechanical Filtration using an 
artificial film formed with inorganic colloids. A 
coagulating chemical is required by the Mechanical 
Filtration process; the gelatinous precipitates of 
such substances, for instance hydrated alumina, 
draws down with it the colloidal albuminoid putres- 
cible matter, as well as up to 98 per cent., or even 
more, of the bacteria, in addition to the suspended 
matter. 

Lake Erie water at Lorain, tested in 1897, be- 
fore and after passing through filters in which 
Aluminum Sulphate was used, gave the following 
results : 

Raw water 507 Bacteria per c.c. 

Filtered water 14 " " " 

Percentage reduction 96.4 

The reports gathered from 18 large cities and 
towns in the United States using Mechanical Filters 
and Sulphate of Alumina (Alum) as a coagulant 
gave an average reduction of the bacterial content 
of water of 98.57 per cent., due to the use of such 
Water Purification Plants. 

Pittsburgh, removing 95 per cent, of the bacteria 
present in her water, used .7 grams of Aluminum 
Sulphate per gallon as the coagulant. The relation 



WATER 



93 



of chemicals used to purification obtained was as 
follows : 





Grams of Aluminum Sulphate 
per gallon of water 

.7 .98 
.72 1.22 
.78 1.66 


Bacterial reduction 
obtained per cent 

95 98 

96 98.5 

97 99 




C/ty of P/ttsfrurg, Pa 
7ypfroid ' Fei^r deaths per /oo,ooopopubffon by years. \ 


: 
















1 








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i 


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/SOt 


1909 


/90J 


J9Q4 


/90S 


/soc 


/SO 7 


isoe 


/SOS 


/9/0 



Fig. 11. 



94 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Elmira, N. Y., using 1.38 grs. of Alum per gallon 
of water, removed 98.43 per cent, of the bacteria, 
and East Providence using 1 grain per gallon, re- 
moved 99.24 per cent. 

The following table has been prepared from the 
New York State published Health Records : 









fl 


































4J .2 


r=3 
































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CJ 

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WATER u 5 

Aluminum Sulphate, the popular coagulant used, 
should never be purchased and used in water purifi- 
cation plants, without being subjected to thorough 
analysis. The pure salt has no physiological action 
beyond astringency, therefore, an accidental excess 
of the pure salt would be generally harmless, 
although it should, of course, be avoided. Alu- 
minum Sulphate solution is naturally acid, but in 
the commercial article, besides a variable amount of 
water by hydration, there is sometimes an objec- 
tionable excess of Sulphuric Acid and also other im- 
purities, even arsenic. 

Mechanical filtration cannot be used successfully 
for very soft water, without subjecting the water to 
auxiliary chemical treatment, for there may not be 
sufficient earthy carbonate in the natural water to 
precipitate the reagent, and more lime or chalk has 
to be added. Aluminum Sulphate works by react- 
ing with the carbonate of lime and magnesia in 
water, when, as Aluminum forms no carbonate, 
hydrated alumina is separated in the gelatinous 
form that entangles impurities, and Sulphate of 
Lime or Magnesia is left in solution; temporary 
hardness is thus changed into permanent hardness. 

The Mechanical filter operates with an inorganic 
film, which is very strong and tenacious and capable 
of standing a good head of water. The film when 
old has to be cleaned and washed out with its sup- 
porting medium and a fresh supply of the coagulant 
added, about ten minutes being generally required 
for the operation. Accompanying curve, with de- 
scriptive matter, for which we are indebted to 
Rideal, illustrates the working of a mechanical filter 
as regards time-reduction in number of bacteria 



96 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



It will be noticed that this proceeds rapidly during 
the first minute, then more slowly until after ten 
minutes it reaches 85 per cent, with a gradual in- 
crease of efficiency afterwards. 



2 100 
90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 



Curve Showing Relationship 

BETWEEN 

Bacterial Reduction *«>Time of Filming 



t 



S 

i 



7 

t 



12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 
Time After Storting Filter - Minutes - 

Fig. 12. 

The quantity of water that has to be wasted in 
washing out the old film and in forming the new one 
has varied, according to Rideal, between 2.5 and 5 
per cent, of the total amount of water passed. The 
washing is usually done by reversing the flow and 
sometimes injecting steam, and occasionally soda, 
and in very muddy waters may be even required 
two or three times a day. Mechanical Filters are 
of the open "Gravity" type and the "Pressure" or 
closed type; the "Gravity" type generally gives a 
better standard of purification and is the one in 
general public use. 



WATER 97 

Water Purification 

The processes of Water Purification may be 
briefly classified as suggested by Allen Hazen as 
follows : 

I. Mechanical Separation. 

By Gravity Sedimentation. 

By Screening Screens, Scrubbers, Filters. 

By Adhesion Scrubbers, Filters- 

II. Coagulation. 

By chemical treatment resulting in drawing matters to- 
gether into groups, thereby making them more suscept- 
ible to removal by mechanical separation, but without 
any significant chemical change in the water. 

III. Chemical Purification. 

Softening — by the use of Lime, etc. 

Iron removal. 

Neutralization of objectionable acids, etc. 

IV. Disinfecting Processes. 
Hypochlorite of Lime 
Chlorine Gas 

Ozone 

Sulphate of Copper 
Violet Ray Treatment. 

The object of these processes is to poison and kill ob- 
jectionable organisms without at the same time adding 
substances objectionable or poisonous to the users of 
the water. 

V. Biological Process. 

Oxidation of organic matter by its use as food for organ- 
isms which thereby effect its destruction. Death of ob- 
jectionable organisms resulting from the production of 
unfavorable conditions, such as absence of food (re- 
moved by the purification processes), killing by antagon- 
istic organisms, etc. 



98 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

VI. Aeration. 

Evaporation of gases held in solution and which are the 
cause of objectionable tastes and odors. Evaporation 
of Carbonic Acid, a food supply for some kinds of 
growth. 

Supplying oxygen necessary for certain chemical puri- 
fication and especially necessary to support growths of 
water purifying organisms. 

VII. Boiling. 

The best household method of protection from disease- 
carrying waters. 

Sometimes two processes are combined, as where 
river water is softened by chemical treatment in 
such a way as to produce a coagulating effect upon 
the suspended matters. 

Many of the disinfectants are powerful oxidizing 
agents. Hypochlorite of Lime, Liquid Chlorine and 
Ozone are among the most powerful oxidizing 
agents known. In addition to killing the objection- 
able organisms, there is sure to be direct chemical 
action resulting from these substances, which tends 
to the purification of the water and at the same 
time to the destruction and elimination of the ap- 
plied substances from the water. These secondary 
actions are often of great importance. 

Ozone, or the Ultra Violet Ray, should not be 
used for turbid and polluted water purification, 
unless the water is first cleansed of the matter 
carried in suspension. Hazen says, "If Ozone is 
applied to dirty water in quantity sufficient to kill 
the objectionable organisms in clear water, it may 
happen that the impurities in the water will absorb 
and use up the Ozone so rapidly that it will not have 



WATER 99 

a chance to act upon the organisms and the desired 
effect will not be produced. For this and other 
reasons, it is not advisable to apply such oxidizing 
agents to dirty raw water." 

Foreign inorganic matter in the thin film of water 
passing the Ultra Violet Ray Lamp will furnish a 
hiding place and refuge for bacterial life from the 
actinic rays of light and thus rob the system of its 
destroying power. 

We are informed that the Hypochlorite of Lime 
is practically equivalent in disinfecting power to 
Ozone, on the basis of molecule for molecule of 
effective oxidizing material. Hypochlorite of Lime 
has produced gratifying results in water purifica- 
tion by the disinfecting process, at a cost said to be 
so low that it could be employed economically in 
any Public Water Works plant, where its use would 
be considered necessary or desirable. Authorities 
say that the cost of material needed in the chemical 
disinfecting process is not more than 15 to 25 cents 
per million gallons, and the entire cost of treatment 
is not more than one-tenth the cost of filtration. 

Liquid Chlorine is now being used extensively as 
a substitute for Hypochlorite of Lime. The active 
agent is the same and "it may be assumed that 
corresponding quantities, molecule for molecule of 
active material, will be required." The use of 
Chlorine is in many respects more convenient than 
the use of Hypochlorite of Lime, but it is generally 
more expensive. Chlorine is supplied in cylinders 
under heavy pressure, and at this time, because of 
the European war, the price is unusually high and 
the quantity available for domestic consumption 
small. 



100 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Purification by Ultra Violet Rays 

Scientists have long known that strong sunlight 
has the power of purifying water by killing the 
organisms and bacteria therein. Experiments have 
proved that the inhibitive property of direct sun- 
light may penetrate into bodies of water for several 
feet, its power being felt in clear water to a depth of 
6 or even 8 feet. In turbid water it is soon arrested 
and the effect of strong sunlight upon bacteria in 
water depends upon the clearness of the water and 
its depth. Shallow clear water may be very ma- 
terially benefited and purified by strong sunlight, 
although such light may detrimentally affect the 
water in a far less harmful way by encouraging the 
growth of Green Algae. The growth of Green 
Algae in storage waters can be prevented by ex- 
cluding light, hence many storage reservoirs are 
covered over, but on the other hand the beneficial 
effect of light in destroying the micro-organisms of 
disease is hindered or lost; the Algae are infinitely 
less dangerous than the pathogenic bacteria. It is 
only comparatively recently that the germicidal 
power of certain rays, invisible to the human eye, has 
become known and the knowledge made of practi- 
cal value in the purification of water, without the 
use of chemicals and the resultant production of 
disagreeable tastes and odors. Dieudonne worked 
out the difference in action between the rays of 
different wave-lengths in the spectrum ; those of the 
longest wave-length and slowest vibration at the red 
end, the "heat rays," had no germicidal power; this 
began at the yellow "light rays" when the vibration- 
velocity of the ray was greater and its wave-length 
consequently shorter. The changes correspondingly 



WATER 101 

progress through the green, blue and violet, the 
''chemical or actinic" rays increasing in germicidal 
power. The invisible or obscure rays beyond the 
violet, known as the "Ultra Violet" possessed still 
greater germicidal properties. In order to produce 
Ultra Violet Rays in a practical and economical 
manner for commercial use, a source other than the 
rays from sunlight had to be found and the mercury 
vapor arc, contained in a rock crystal quartz lamp, 
is now used with success in the production of Ultra 
Violet Rays in a concentrated and usable form. 

This type of water purifier was first used in 
France where several Municipal supplies have been 
treated by sand filtration and Ultra Violet Rays. 
At Luneville, France, about two million gallons of 
water per day are being successfully treated by this 
method and the following table of number of bac- 
teria per c.c. records the practical benefit of the 
Ultra Violet Ray plant in the reduction of bacterial 
content. 





First 


Second 


Third 


Fourth 


Year 


Quarter 


Quarter 


Quarter 


Quarter 


1908 


15 


6 


121 


20 


1909 


57 


12 


7 


55 


1910 


19 


3 


5 


46 


1911 


69 


5 


32 


10 


1912 


14 


11 


9* 


2 


1913 


2 


5 


3 


2 



*The Ultra Violet Ray plant commenced operations during latter 
part of August, 1912; before that time the Sand Filtration plant only 
was in use. 

Since the installation of the Ultra Violet Ray 
plant it is said that no disease producing bacteria 
nor coli-bacillus have been found in the water. 



102 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

All water to be treated by Ultra Violet Rays 
must be free from suspended matter and colors. 
Light rays cannot remove them. The natural taste, 
beneficial sources and gases of the water are not 
changed and as the rays of light can carry no con- 
tamination, nothing is put into the water during the 
process. To remove all suspended matter, Slow 
Sand or Mechanical Filters should be used. An 
Ultra Violet Ray Water Purification Process to be 
effective must compel all the water to be treated to 
come into close contact with the electrically operated 
quartz lamps. Usually the water is forced to pass 
within about 1% inches of the lamps, and by means 
of baffle plates the water is caused to pass the light 
in such a way that it receives the rays of light from 
every angle, as well as coming into intimate con- 
tact with them. 

The U. S. Public Health Service at Marine 
Hospital, Chicago, has made exhaustive tests on 
Ultra Violet Ray Water Purifiers, which clearly 
demonstrate their efficiency; and the Detroit Test- 
ing Laboratory reported effective results obtained 
in October, 1915. The Parke-Davis Co. tests, con- 
ducted in April, 1914, gave the following results: 

Inflowing water 330^000 bacteria per cc. 
Outflowing water (after 3 min.) 470 

Outflowing water (after 5 min.) 110 

B eduction of bacteria 99.96% 

The conditions of this test were made unusually 
severe by artificial pollution, and under ordinary 
conditions the number of organisms in the inflow- 
ing water would not exceed 500 bacteria per c.e. 



WATER 103 

Tests made with similar apparatus at Bingham- 
ton, N. Y., during November, 1914, have been 

reported as follows: Raw water Treated 

with sewage water 

Bacteria per c.c. at blood heat 3,600 

Acid formers 320 

Gas formation present 

The Steuben Laboratory, of Corning, N. Y., has 
made exhaustive tests of which the following is a 
brief digest : Raw Imp> Treated Imp< 

A, Basin Basin 
Bacteria at blood heat 52 Sterile 
Gas formation present 
Subculture positive for B. Coli in raw sample. 

B. B. Coli Raw B. Coli Treated 
Bacteria at blood heat 10,000 estimated Sterile 
Gas formation present 
Subcultures positive for B- Coli in raw sample. 

Typhoid Typhoid 

C, Raw Treated 
Bacteria at blood heat 10,000 estimated 8 

Gas formation present 

Sample contaminated with mixture B. Typhosus and B.Coli. 
Subculture from treated water shows no evidence of B. Coli 
nor B. Typhosus. 
Eight colonies seemed to be Staphylococci. 

D. Sewage Sewage Treated 
Bacteria at blood heat 43 1 

Gas formation present 

Subculture positive for B. Coli in raw sample- 

Ultra Violet Ray Water Purifiers afford a handy 
means of treating water in either small or large 
quantities. They are being used to-day to cleanse 
the water of swimming pools and also the water 
used by industrial establishments; The Diamond 



104 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Match Co. has treated the drinking water in its 
Barberton, Ohio, Factory by this process since 1914 
as a safeguard against the possible contamination of 
the well water used. 

The Barberton R.U.V. Sterilizer is placed within 
a screened enclosure at the end of the employees 
dining room and is thoroughly open to view. It is 
marked "Employees Drinking Water Purification 
Plant" and is provided with glass plates which en- 
able one to clearly see by the conspicuous violet 
light if the sterilizing action is taking place. The 
Barberton apparatus consists of a single casting 
about three feet in diameter with a ray-producing 
burner inserted in the center. The sterilizer 
operates on 220 volts D. C. and has a capacity of 
one thousand gallons per hour. 

Aeration 

The simplest, cheapest and most generally ap- 
plicable method of removing tastes and odors from 
water is by aeration, i. e., bringing the water in con- 
tact with air by playing the water into it by foun- 
tains or by water falls. The natural flow of water 
in the bed of a mountain stream over stones and 
ledges aerates it very well. A water to be palatable 
should be fully aerated, i. e., it should be nearly 
saturated with the natural constituents of the 
atmosphere, viz.: Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbonic 
Acid ; otherwise the liquid is flat and insipid. 

Sterilization of Water 

To sterilize water requires that it be made abso- 
lutely free from all reproductive spores, germs, or 
bacilli, and there is no safe method of preventing 
water-borne disease except by sterilization of the 
liquid. Water Purifying Systems have been 



WATER 105 

termed Sterilizing Plants and in many cases the 
difference between an acknowledged "Purification" 
Plant and a supposititious "Sterilization" Plant is 
solely one of extent or degree of treatment, where 
the process causes a reduction of bacterial life vary- 
ing with the thoroughness of the attempt made to 
destroy organic life, but which cannot possibly 
function so as to absolutely guarantee the elimina- 
tion of all reproductive spores and bacilli. 

In sedimentation, with or without coagulants, a 
remarkable purification of the water is effected in 
regard not only to matter in suspension, but also to 
organisms. Sedimentation followed by Slow Sand, 
or "Rapid" Mechanical Filtration can, under the 
best conditions, maintain a reduction in the number 
of bacteria per unit volume of water up to about 98 
per cent. Winslow says that water very heavily 
polluted with sewage cannot be made positively 
wholesome and potable by Chlorine or Hypo- 
chlorite treatment any more than by filtration. 
He maintains that disinfection of water with bleach- 
ing powder and kindred chemicals is best as a 
double safeguard in connection with some other 
efficient and recognized water purification process. 
"Taking an ordinary polluted stream as the original 
source of most water supplies, there are now three 
processes by which it can be treated, viz. : Storage, 
Filtration and Disinfection. A fairly well stored 
water, which is generally pretty safe but not al- 
ways quite safe, can be rendered unexceptionable 
by Chlorine (disinfection) treatment. Where a 
surface water is not stored, but filtered, disinfection 
again affords a double safeguard. Filtration alone 
will remove from 95 to 98 per cent, of bacterial con- 
tamination in well built and efficiently operated 



106 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Water Purification Plants ; Hypochlorates, in con- 
junction with filtration, will still further destroy 
bacterial life, increasing the total destruction of 
organic life to 98, 99 and possibly under certain 
conditions, even 100 per cent, of the content of the 
original raw water." In Omaha, Nebraska, the 
Typhoid death rate was 67 per 100,000 with 
filtered water, and this was reduced to 12 per 
100,000 when a chemical Disinfecting Plant was 
operated as an adjunct to the Filtration Plant. In 
Minneapolis, the Typhoid rate of 58.7 was reduced 
95 per cent, by the addition of the Hypochlorate 
plant worked in conjunction with the filtration sys- 
tem. The number of Typhoid deaths in Pittsburgh 
was reduced from 141 in 1906 to 10 in 1911 by the 
use, as an additional safeguard, of "disinfecting" 
chemicals in conjunction with a filtration plant. 

The Sterilization of water requires the destruc- 
tion of all bacteria, which will insure the killing 
of all pathogenic organisms and not the mere 
temporary reduction of their numbers or sifting 
some of them out. Many bacilli are harmless but 
certain pathogenic germs are the carriers of bane- 
ful diseases ; they multiply with amazing activity in 
a suitable environment — Cramer, of Zurich, found 
that bacteria in a specimen of city water increased 
27,000 times in a few days — and a few,slipping by 
the defenses of a water purification plant, have 
proven their ability in the past to cause an epidemic 
in a community fed with a common water supply 
and served by a common sewage system. Our un- 
natural mode of living under the artificial con- 
ditions caused and demanded by "civilization," and 
our crudeness in expressing an attitude of in- 
surgency against nature's laws by neglecting to pro- 



WATER 107 

tect ourselves from inevitable dangers which are in- 
vited by our foolhardy and blundering steps in de- 
fiance of geological and biological laws, is symbolic 
of the egotism of a species intoxicated with power 
and freedom which is just emerging into a domain 
of apparently unrestricted liberty. It is a truism 
that the Price of Health — of life lived under un- 
natural and artificial surroundings — is Eternal 
Vigilance. We contaminate nature's laws and 
pollute her waters; we should, therefore, be as 
aggressive in our defense of our position as we are 
in our attack on nature and refuse to be satisfied 
with "comparatively wholesome" water. If we 
would systematically and definitely bar disease 
from entering our system through the channel of 
our drinking water supply, we would see that such 
water is sterilized; no other procedure will give us 
the security that our vulnerable position demands. 
We are polluters, as well as users and manipulators 
of the surface of the earth, and even nature's geo- 
logical filters may have fissures or channels through 
w^hich water can pass from the surface freely to sub- 
terranean water courses, thus feeding to man from 
deep wells, water but little better than unpurified 
surface water. The adoption of pure and reliable 
water supplies by our cities and towns is generally 
defeated or postponed by ignorance, indifference, 
fatalism or the question of expense. We also fre- 
quently hear that the inhabitants of any district 
gradually become accustomed to the deleterious 
action of bacteria peculiar to the waters. The resist- 
ance of the human system is a very variable 
quantity ; it is alwavs liable to break down. Health 
cannot be measured in monetary terms, but history, 
if studied, will teach us that epidemics have been 



108 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

enormously expensive in the past in a pecuniary 
sense as well as in lives, well-being and happiness, 
and smaller epidemics are prevalent to-day and still 
continue to be costly. Hazen first noticed that 
where one death from typhoid has been avoided by 
the use of better and more wholesome water, a cer- 
tain number of deaths, probably two or three from 
other causes, seem also to have been avoided. Sedg- 
wick and McNutt have elaborated this thought and 
fully established the fact that where purer water is 
supplied the general death rate declines more 
rapidly than the typhoid death rate. 

Nearly all bacteria thrive best in neutral or 
slightly alkaline solutions and decline in acid ones. 
During the South African war, tablets of Acid 
Sodium Sulphate used in the proportion of 15 
grains per pint of water were used with success to 
purify the water. Citric acid in the proportion of 
8 to 10,000 is said to prove fatal to Cholera Bacilli, 
and in the proportion of 10 to 10,000 destroys 
typhoid bacilli. 

Magnesium peroxide is now much used to "steri- 
lize" bottled mineral waters. It does not seem to 
unpleasantly affect the taste and in small quantities 
is physiologically harmless; the usual quantity em- 
ployed is 1 gr. per litre. Excess lime or the liberal 
use of Chlorine or Hyphochlorates have been 
claimed to produce sterilization of water. Adding 
chemicals to water is not generally advisable in 
private houses, since a slight excess may yield a 
solution strong enough to have toxic properties ; the 
use of chemicals in tablet form has been suggested 
and may, to a certain extent, overcome the objec- 
tion, but the use of tablets requires an accurate 
measuring of the water, which cannot always be re- 



WATER 109 

lied upon in the average household. In houses 
equipped with electric light, small automatic instal- 
lations for sterilizing water by means of Ozone, 
Ultra Violet Rays or Electrolytic Sodium Hypo- 
chlorate can be used, but such systems demand that 
the water to be treated shall first have been freed 
from suspended matter. Ozonators require the use 
of dry air, and with such a plant it is generally 
necessary to pass the air through dehydrating 
chemicals, such as Calcium Chloride, before the 
Ozone can be effectively produced for use in the 
purification of water. The chemicals are, of course, 
not brought into contact with water and the great 
advantage of Light Rays and Ozone in the puri- 
fication of water, lies in the fact that they do not add 
foreign matter of any kind to the water. Ozone 
plants are installed for the sterilization of water in 
Paris, Nice and Petrograd and they are now being 
exploited in our own country. 

In addition to the possibility of sterilizing water 
by Ultra Violet Rays, Ozone and chemicals, when 
used in conjunction with Filtration plants, steriliza- 
tion can also be obtained by heating ; apparatus has 
been built to permit of the sterilization of water 
fairly economically by heating at a temperature in 
excess of 212° F. for a period of 10 minutes or more, 
the temperature and time being such as will posi- 
tively kill the spores of all organisms, including 
those which are comparatively resistant to heat. 

To sterilize water in a definite and positive man- 
ner is an expensive operation, and persistent records 
need to be taken and untiring watchfulness mani- 
fested if such sterilization is to be effective and 
maintained throughout all the hours of the day and 
the days of the year. Methods which attempt 



-miCXPA^v owbo WATE ^rL L L?SI™lf^ OVER 30,000 INHABITANTS. 

DIFFERE NT PURIFICATION PROCESSES NOW IN 



Washington, D. C. . . 
Louisville, Ky 

("min-il Jlllitl.-, low:, 

Dallas, Tex 

Oraaha, Nebr 

Oshkosh, Wis 

Atlanta, Ga 

Knoxville, Tenn 



Macon, Ga 

Albany! -N. V, 



St. Louis, Mo 

Youngstown, Ohio 

Wilmington, Del 

Harrisburg, Pa 

Columbia, S. C 

Oklahoma City, Okla., 

Pittsburgh, Pa.. ...'.,'. 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

New Orleans, La 



Kansas City, Kans.. 



KnoxvilJe, Tenn 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa.. 



Charlotte, N. C. 



Pueblo, Colo '.'.'.' 

Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

Niagara Falls, N. Y... 



LA'ali-ViMi', hill 



Philadelphia, Pa.. 
Providence, R. I.. 



New York, N. Y.. 



N'Tfolf;. Vt 



Sail Diego, Oil.. 

Lorain, Ohio 

Cincinnati, Ohio.. 
New Orleans, La.. 
Columbus, Ohio 



Louisville, Ky. .'.'. 

Albany, N. Y 

Kansas City, Kans. . 



■MIKTV. V!:l 

a Falld, N. ' 



U ;.|.J.. :\luh 

„.„ ..ortn.Tex 

Evansville, Ind 



I-.-.-..H -V.JI, . 

Flint, Mich 



Couucil Bluffs, Iowa. 



Kan- i- < if v, i\. 
Ti.ni..;.. N J. 



I.iiii'iln. 



Niagara Fulls, N. 
New York. N. Y. 
Chicago, 111. 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Detroit, Mich. 
Tacoma, Wash. 

U'iJmmiriMii, Del. 
EvaMSVllIr Ind. 



Ccdnr Rapul-9, Iov 
I'l.il l.-l|.i.i... l'.i. 
Ck-vrlaiul. Ohio. 
Louisville. Ivy. 



I,V(»'-h1*-.irii. Va. 
Bnlh.lo. X Y. 



Cm.- .mplovine. live prui't—es: 
Albany, N. Y 

Chics employing four processes: 

. Louis, Mo. ; 



Cin 






Limisviile, Ky. 



I. ijlnnil)j:i, &. ». 

Philadelphia, Pa 

Cities employing three processes: 



\V..-lr,iii ''-n 

IfewS" 



Evansville, Ind 

Charlotte, N. C 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa 

Niagara Falls, N. Y 

New York, N. Y 

Cities employing two processes: 

Richmond, Va 

Pueblo, Colo 



Youngstown, Ohio. 
McKcesport, Pa... 

Oshkosh. Wis 

Lorain, Ohio 



Baltimore, ...... . 

( \.!ii...ii.u.-!, Oluo 

1 1. . .-M,.!. ..,,,.: ..(..• pr ...■- 

nkl.., :i City. Okln . . 

X. iM'-.'i. Ky 

I'r..v.,l,.„,.,., R I 

Kri.ini!:. P» 

YonkersTW. Y..! '.'.'.'.".'.'.'. 

Augusta, Ga 

Toledo', Ohio 



Waco, Tex 

Chicago, 111 

Clevcliirid. Ohio 

Buffalo,' N. Y.'.'! 
Milwaukee, »'u. 
Jersey City, N. J 
Hartford, Conn.. 
Tacoma, Wash . . 

Portland, Me.... 

Mobile, .Ma 

Riv City. Mich.. 
Lincoln, Nebr.... 
Muskogee, Okla. 



• Cost not comparable. 



110 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

sterilization of water are more costly per unit of 
organic matter dealt with than Sedimentation or 
Filtration processes; therefore, it is more eco- 
nomical to remove as much deleterious matter and 
organisms as possible by prefiltration and pre- 
sedimentation, reserving the final sterilization pro- 
cess for the odd 2 per cent, of the dangerous matter 
that slips by the more general purification processes. 
In order to obtain sterile water for drinking pur- 
poses and still keep the expense of installing and 
operating the purification and sterilization systems 
of any community within the bounds which will war- 
rant its serious consideration, it has been suggested 
that our Municipal Water Supplies be operated as 
a Dual System. The advocates of such a plan pro- 
pose that absolutely sterilized water be piped to all 
private houses, drinking fountains, etc., and where- 
ever water is required for cooking and drinking; a 
second system of filtered or storage water to be 
piped for municipal purposes, fire department use, 
street cleaning, public lavatories, manufactories, 
etc. It is to be regretted that inefficiency, graft and 
incompetency in our city governments — as well as 
State and Federal — have increased taxation to such 
a point that the cost of needed plants to promote 
health and safeguard the population is often the 
pivotal issue and result in health being sacrificed 
and considered secondary to far less important 
matters. The supply of drinking water to a city is 
a matter for municipal control — not necessarily 
municipal ownership — but water should be ob- 
tained, treated and delivered not for profit alone, 
but for the health and convenience of the inhabitants 
who should pay for such water and service what it is 
worth and thus guarantee a fair return on the 



WATER 111 

money actually invested in the construction and 
operation of such plants. No community is justi- 
fied in discharging their sewage and garbage into a 
lake or body of confined water and taking their 
drinking water from the same body of water, no 
matter what the peculiar conditions may be and no 
matter how they may strive to justify their foolish 
acts. Such sewage and garbage should be de- 
stroyed, even though the destructive plants are very 
much more expensive than water purification plants 
and in addition the water used for Municipal pur- 
poses should be filtered and purified and that used 
for drinking and domestic purposes, sterilized. 

Statistics of Large American Municipally Owned Water 
Systems 

The United States Department of Commerce, 
Bureau of the Census, in the General Statistics of 
Cities gives some interesting figures in regard to 
the Municipally owned water supply systems in 155 
American cities of over 30,000 inhabitants. The 
total stated value of the systems is $1,071,201,511 
or about $40 per person served. Of this cost 32.7% 
or $350,000,000 is represented by the New York 
system alone. 

Rivers and small streams furnish the water for 67 
of the cities; wells supply 33 entirely and lakes or 
ponds 21. Twenty-six cities obtain water from two 
or more sources. Impounding reservoirs are in use 
in 40 of the cities; distributing reservoirs in 114 
cities and both impounding and distributing in 13. 
Standpipes are in use in 73 cities, the greatest num- 
ber being 12 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Wells are in use 
in 49 cities, but in 16 of them they only furnish part 



112 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

of the supply. These wells vary in depth from 
3,000 feet in Dallas, Texas, to extremely shallow 
ones. The diameter of the driven wells varies from 
six inches to 26 inches, the majority ranging from 
six inches to 14 inches. Lincoln, Nebraska, has one 
well 40 feet in diameter and 60 feet deep ; Topeka, 
Kansas, has two wells 60 feet and one 48 feet in 
diameter, all about 47 feet deep. Generally similar 
wells are in use in Schenectady, N. Y., and 
Spokane, Wash., and they have been spoken of as 
"collecting galleries" of a subterranean "water 
table." Natural water pressure at the point of dis- 
charge is reported in eight cities. 

Of the 155 cities reporting municipally owned 
water supply systems, only 73, i. e., 47%; employ 
purification processes. Appended is a table giving 
the different purification processes now in use in 
these cities and the cost of treatment per million 
gallons. 

Five processes of purification are employed, viz. : 
sedimentation, coagulation, slow sand filtration, 
mechanical filtration and chemical disinfection, 
which is popularly termed sterilization. The 
coagulation process is always used in connection 
with one or more of the other processes. 

There are 87 sedimentation reservoirs in 32 cities 
treating 958,600,000 gallons per day; 527 slow 
sand filters in 17 cities treating 598,700,000 gallons 
per day; 439 mechanical filters in 35 cities handling 
469,600,000 gallons daily. In 26 cities 492,100,000 
gallons per day, it is reported, are treated by coagu- 
lation and in 42 cities a total of 1,972,900,000 gal- 
lons are treated daily by chemical disinfection or 
so-called chemical sterilization. 



WATER 113 

Typhoid in the United States Compared With Europe 

It has been said that "The science of water puri- 
fication has developed mainly, due to the zeal and 
enterprise of the growing cities in America which 
have realized that one of the most essential factors 
for the well being of a community is an ample 
supply of clear and wholesome water." Such eulo- 
gistic and apparently authoritative statements are 
unwarranted by the facts. We could more truth- 
fully say that in America we have striven in our 
water purification plants (aside from influencing 
political considerations) to get results quickly and 
cheaply only when positively compelled to attempt 
to do so and this with the least annoyance and inter- 
ference with our generally unhygienic and unsani- 
tary mode of living. The United States Govern- 
ment Official Bulletins tell us the unvarnished but 
absolute truth when they say, "The undue preval- 
ence of typhoid fever in the United States has been 
characterized as a National disgrace, and this char- 
acterization is not unreasonable or unjust, in view 
of the fact that much of the typhoid fever is pre- 
ventable by one simple measure — the installation 
of a safe water supply. Theoretically, typhoid 
fever is a preventable disease to the point of com- 
plete eradication." The proper disposal of excreta 
of the entire population is still far from attainment 
and "Instead of being able to destroy the infective 
agent at its source in feces and urine, we are com- 
pelled by expendiency to attempt to prevent the 
entrance of the germs into the human body by 
making our water and milk supplies safe." Cities 
which neglect to properly purify their water "would 
be exposed also to outbreaks of Asiatic cholera 



114 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

should persons ill with cholera or 'carriers' gain 
access to the United States. * * * The average 
American citizen displays toward sanitary problems 
a very dangerous apathy. It is difficult to arouse 




Showing seasonal distribution of typhoid feyer, Albany : M X,fbr nine-year 
period before ond nine-year period after filtration . 7h& stippled area 
represents typhoid previous io filtration; the blacA area represents 
typhoid after filtration* (From the 19/0 report of 'the Albany water 
department.) 

Fig. 13. 



his interest in anything so common as typhoid 
f ever — it has been all about him always, excites no 
terror and is viewed indifferently as an inevitable 



WATER 115 

visitation which comes every year and takes its toll 
from the community. He rarely asks himself is 
this visitation inevitable, or may not typhoid fever 
be prevented or reduced? * * * Instances 
may be cited where a public water supply grossly 
polluted with sewage and an appalling typhoid rate 
were accepted without murmur by the citizens for 
years until the taste of oil and chemicals caused a 
popular demand for moving the water intake 
further out into the lake or for a filtration plant. 
* * * Typhoid fever is more dangerous in its 
transmissibility, more expensive in its lingering 
course and more disastrous in its sequelae than 
Asiatic cholera." 

The Health Officer of an American city is in- 
clined to boast if the typhoid death rate of the com- 
munity under his medical supervision, does not ex- 
ceed 20 per 100,000 people per annum, but in 
Europe such a so-called "low" rate would be con- 
sidered outrageously high and positively disgrace- 
ful, calling forth acrid denunciation and demand- 
ing that a thorough investigation be instantly in- 
augurated and that prompt steps be immediately 
taken to overcome the causes leading to such a 
public menace with its fearful mortality. In the 
cities of Northern Europe that have had safe water 
supplies for years, the typhoid rate is seldom in 
excess of 5 per 100,000. Fifty registration cities in 
the United States, each having over 100,000 in- 
habitants and with an aggregate population of over 
twenty million, had an average typhoid death rate 
for 1910 of 25 per 100,000. Compare this figure 



116 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



with the typhoid records of the following European 
cities : 





1909 


1910 




1909 


1910 


Stockholm 


0.5 


4.0 


Bristol 


2.8 


2.1 


Christiania 


1.7 


2-0 


Nuremberg 


2.6 




Munich 


1.9 


1.4 


Birmingham 


5.0 


3.9 


Edinburgh 


1.2 


2.0 


Belfast 


5.2 


3.9 


Vienna 


2.8 


4.0 


Lyons 


5-8 


4.4 


Hamburg 


3.3 


4.1 


Leeds 


7.2 


3.8 


Eerlin 


4.2 


4.0 


Liverpool 


8.4 


3.9 


Dresden 


4.2 


2.2 


Sheffield 


9.4 


3.0 


Copenhagen 


2.7 


3.6 


Rotterdam 


6.4 


6.5 


London 


2.2 


4.0 


Amsterdam 


3.8 


6.7 


Frankfort 


1.5 


0.9 


Paris 


8.4 


5.6 


Antwerp 


1.0 


2.3 


Leipzig 


8.3 


7.5 



The 33 principal cities in Northern Europe, with 
an aggregate population of 31,500,000, had an 
average typhoid death rate per 100,000 inhabitants 
of 6.5 in 1909 and 1910. This includes such notori- 
ous typhoid centers as Petrograd, which uses in 
part, raw and polluted Neva water and had a 
typhoid mortality rate of 33.7 in 1910; Warsaw 
with 17.4 and Moscow with 15.0. The U. S. 
Government reports state "A conservative estimate 
for 1910 will place the deaths from typhoid fever 
above 25,000" and the number of cases is estimated 
as ten times the number of fatalities or 250,000. 
"In 1909 there were more cases of typhoid fever in 
the U. S. than cases of plague in India, in spite of 
the fact that India's population is two and a half 
times that of the United States. From January 
1907 to October 1911 there occurred in Russia 
283,684 cases of Asiatic cholera. This included the 
appalling epidemic of 1910. According to a con- 
servative estimate there occurred in the United 



WATER 117 

States during the same period one and a quarter 
million cases of typhoid fever, or more than four 
cases of typhoid fever in the United States for 
every case of cholera in Russia. We heard a great 
deal of the ravages of cholera in Italy in 1910-1911, 
yet in these two years there occurred in Italy about 
16,000 cases of cholera and about 6,000 deaths, and 
in the United States in the same period we had 
more than half a million cases of typhoid fever and 
fifty thousand deaths. We are accustomed to speak 
of these countries as pest ridden and a residence 
there or even a brief visit is often considered with 
apprehension, while we regard the prevalence of 
typhoid fever in our own country with little con- 
cern." 

The economic loss to the country from typhoid 
is appalling and is estimated by our Government 
experts at not less than $100,000,000 annually, 
Typhoid is caused by contaminated water, milk 
which, in turn, may be infected by water used for 
cleaning utensils, or adulteration, and vile, unsani- 
tary conditions; but water is directly or indirectly 
responsible for probably 80 or 90 per cent, of all the 
cases of typhoid experienced. The use of sterilized 
water for drinking, cooking and the cleansing of 
vessels used for handling foods and liquids, together 
with proper sanitation and strict conformation to 
well known and clearly defined hygienic laws on 
the part of the community and the individual, would 
eliminate from our midst the horrible scourge of 
typhoid with its dreadful toll. 

Mineral Waters — Medicinal Properties 

No absolute line of demarcation can be drawn 
between ordinary waters and mineral waters. 



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WATER 119 

Mineral waters usually contain a high mineral 
content, but some ordinary drinking waters con- 
tain more mineral constituents than other waters 
universally classed as mineral waters; many com- 
paratively pure waters, both cold and warm, 
have for ages been known as Mineral Springs. 
Mineral waters are found in all parts of the globe, 
without regard to latitude, longitude or altitude, 
but they are more prevalent in volcanic regions 
while few are found in very flat sections. Mineral 
waters resolve themselves into weaker and stronger 
solutions of salts and gases in waters of higher or 
lower temperature ; for medicinal purposes they are 
used either internally or externally. They are gen- 
erally classed under the head of a predominating 
element; the table of Types of Mineral Waters on 
opposite page has the merit of comparative sim- 
plicity . 

From time immemorial writers have praised cer- 
tain mineral waters. Wonderful healing proper- 
ties have been attributed to these waters by the, 
medical profession and by their sacerdotal and 
superstitious predecessors; waters have been ex- 
ploited and from the earliest days, history and tra- 
dition tell of pilgrimages to waters in order that the 
sick might be benefited by the wonderful curative 
power of mineral springs. Such waters have been 
described as "inexhaustible fountains of health" and 
one mediaeval writer states that the chalybeate 
waters of Dulwich Wells are "a certain cure for 
every ill to which humanity is heir." Hartwig has 
written "How truly wonderful is the chain of pro- 
cesses which first raises vapors from the deep and 
eventually causes them to gush forth from the en- 
trails of the earth laden with blessings and enriched 



120 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

with treasures more inestimable than those the 
miners toil for." Another writer has said "Nature 
of her bounty has furnished us with innumerable 
healing springs to help us to remedy the ills we have 
brought upon ourselves by errors of diet and liv- 
ing." Some so-called mineral waters are naturally 
impregnated with carbonic acid gas which, under 
certain conditions, may irritate the stomach and 
under other conditions, may tend to stimulate and 
prove an aid to digestion. The much esteemed 
Selters water (Seltzers) is a natural water found in 
the valley of Niederselters in the German Province 
of Hesse-Nassau; it contains chiefly carbonic acid, 
bicarbonate of soda and common salt, being there- 
fore, a charged salt and alkaline water; substitutes 
for this water are manufactured very extensively. 
Appollinaris is said to be a natural aerated' acidu- 
lated soda water obtained from a spring in the 
valley of the Aar, near the Rhine; this water is in 
great demand as a beverage, but the fact that the 
bottling establishment connected with this spring as 
well as many other "naturally charged" mineral 
waters, receive carload shipments of carbonic acid 
gas in drums is significant. French Vichy is an alka- 
line water and nothing more. It is harmless and for 
certain constitutions most healthful. The Celestin 
Vichy (French government bottling) may be flat 
and insipid, slightly or moderately aerated, whereas 
the Dubois bottling, claimed to be the natural min- 
eral water from the heart of the vichy district, is 
highly charged with carbonic acid. It is said that 
charged mineral waters stimulate the appetite and 
some extremely sensitive people have even claimed 
that certain carbonic acid waters, highly charged, 



WATER 121 

are not only stimulating but mildly intoxicating. 
Good, reliable bottled waters with mild mineral con- 
tent, flat or very mildly aerated, with general 
national and preferably international distribution, 
are a boon and valued safeguard to the traveller 
who can use one standardized water wherever he 
journeys, and thus eliminate the possible ills result- 
ing from the consumption of variable waters that 
generally demand more or less physical adjustment ; 
also the greater evil in the form of possible infec- 
tion from the use of contaminated waters. The 
selection of a bottled and so-called healthful mineral 
water should not be lightly made, for commercial- 
ism is at times apt to run rampant, especially in our 
own country, and where ignorance, avarice and: 
hysterical exploitation are substituted for con- 
servatism and medical knowledge, disastrous re- 
sults may follow. The following extract from a 
reputable California paper, under large conspicuous 
headings, is illustrative of our national contempt 
for both truth and health : 

"Through a special process perfected at A — P — Co. re- 
cently, a high grade mineral water has been obtained from 

the drawing of a 1 composition which is said to contain 

many strength-giving chemicals. As a consequence the 

is seriously considering the matter of making this mineral out- 
put one of the by-products of the Company, and inasmuch as 
it contains many chemicals of value which are not to be found 
in the natural composition of any so-called health water, it is 
more than possible that the output may find a heavy demand. 
Company chemists who have taken the formula of the water, 
report that it contains many valuable minerals. The water, 
though taken from a highly brackish composite fluid, has a 
pleasant taste and is in no way similar to that of any other 
mineral water." 



122 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Water, contaminated with sewage and death- 
dealing, is also apt to have a pleasant taste and 
would probably be fully as healthful as the waste 
water from a chemical operation, heavily charged 
with organic matter. It would be well for all 
careful people to taboo the use of all mineral and 
bottled waters, unless their reliability and whole- 
someness is proven by continual analysis and un- 
questioned expert endorsement, all backed by the 
experience coming from years of usage. 

To "take the waters" used to be a healing process 
enjoyed only by the most favored members of so- 
ciety, but now most of the waters are bottled and 
can reach the homes of the poorest. The efficacy of 
mineral waters seems to be lessened greatly when the 
waters are taken at home and away from their nat- 
ural font. If a person truly cares to take the famous 
mineral waters of either Europe or this country 
they could be duplicated at very small expense. It 
is not, however, the mineral in the water that heals, 
at the famous Health Resorts, but the Rules of the 
Game, which consist of healthful routine, proper 
diet, no dissipation, common sense treatment, the 
using principally of nature's own remedies such as 
pure air, sunshine, exercise and plenty of water 
taken at the right time. The average patient who 
visits the famous Mineral Springs, goes to a dif- 
ferent climate and generally experiences a change in 
altitude at a time of the year which would naturally 
prove beneficial to him (the Health Resorts have 
seasons ) . His diet is altered and the abuses to his 
stomach are mostly eliminated. His erratic hours 
of rest and social dissipation are changed to regu- 
larity, early retiring and rational hours of sleep 



WATER 123 

with absolute relaxation. Business cares and 
nervous worries are laid aside, exercise is demanded, 
good pure air fills his lungs, scientific bathing opens 
the pores of his skin, and with a natural diet his 
bodily organs function normally, eliminate waste, 
purify the blood and tone up his run-down constitu- 
tion. Nature performs the wonderful cure gen- 
erally attributed to waters. As a rule the mineral 
content of waters has no influence whatever in 
bringing such a patient back to health, but mineral 
waters may be the magnets, like the relics of the 
Saints, in drawing bodily sick pilgrims to the 
Shrines of Health. Rob the water of its minerals 
but retain its freshness and springlike purity and 
subject a patient to the same Health Resort treat- 
ment, giving him an average wholesome water but 
the same measure of nature's bounty administered 
with intelligence, and the man would be healed with- 
out the mineral content of water. The virtue of the 
mineral constituents of water is also intensified by 
suggestion. The patient going to take a cure ex- 
hibits faith or belief in the efficacy of a few mineral 
salts mixed in his drinking and bathing water; 
therefore, the patient is psychologically benefited 
as soon as his treatment begins, for there is no 
doubt that the mind has a wonderful influence on 
the health and well-being of the body. The treat- 
ment at Mineral Water Resorts has another great 
advantage over other pathological methods of treat- 
ing the sick. Less poisonous drugs are admin- 
istered, the "wonderful" waters take their place and 
therefore the system has only one disease or error to 
fight off instead of two or more. 



II. 



MILK 

MILK may be defined as an opaque, creamy 
white fluid secreted by the mammary 
glands of female mammals for the nourish- 
ment of their young. In chemical constitution it 
consists of an emulsion of fatty globules (cream) 
in a watery, slightly alkaline solution (when fresh) 
of salts, casein and a variety of sugar peculiar to 
milk, named lactose or milk sugar. The fat (which 
when separated we know as butter) and the lactose 
constitute the carbonaceous portion of the milk re- 
garded as food. The casein, which forms the prin- 
cipal constituent of cheese together with a certain 
amount of albumen, form the nitrogenous, while 
the complex saline substances are the mineral con- 
stituents. The water in milk serves the purpose of 
holding in solution the soluble constituents of the 
milk and it also acts as a diluent, making the 
mixture adaptable for animal digestion and nutri- 
tion. 

Maternity is the prime incentive to the secretion of 
milk, and it is a fluid which is only secreted for a cer- 
tain period of time after parturition. The immediate 
stimulus to the production of milk is the turning 
of the blood that went to nourish the fetus from the 
arteries of the womb to the arteries of the udder or 
breast. The pressure of blood in these glandular 
organs stimulates the secreting cells to great 
activity, and the cells, hitherto dormant, multiply 



MILK 125 

rapidly. The milk is formed from the blood and 
the amount of milk secreted depends upon the blood 
vessels, the vigor of circulation, the food eaten and 
the capacity to digest and assimilate the food and 
turn it into blood rich with nutrients. With wild 
animals, in a state of nature, the milk is secreted 
only in an amount sufficient for the needs of the 
offspring and the period of the milk flow ceases 
when the young are sufficiently developed to obtain 
their food supply independent of the mother. 
Under the influence of domestication, the cow has 
been encouraged or developed to increase the flow 
of milk many fold and the time during which it is 
secreted has been lengthened, until it is almost and 
in some cases is quite continuous. Wing has said 
that "A vigorous calf would not need more than 20 
pounds of milk per day for the first four months of 
its life, or 2,400 pounds of milk, and this, or less, 
would be all that a normal wild or semi-wild cow 
would be likely to produce in a year. Numerous 
cows have produced more than ten times this 
amount, or 24,000 pounds of milk in a year, the 
largest authentic amount on record being, it is said, 
30,318.5 pounds of milk given by the Holstein cow 
Pieterje 2d in 1888." 

Experienced Dairymen seem to agree that 
whereas cows may secrete milk continuously for 
two or three years without producing a calf, yet 
parturition serves to stimulate the secretion of milk 
to such an extent that it is better, and in the end 
more economical, for the cow to produce a calf 
at regular intervals each year and, as a result, to 
have a short annual rest of 2 to 4 weeks as a milk 
producer before calving; and this regardless of the 
value of the calf when born. The good effect of 



126 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



the dry period of a cow is largely physiological and 
the secreting glands in the udder are stimulated to 
greater activity if they are favored with a brief 
annual period of inactivity. * 



Animal 


Authority 


CD 


11 


Is 


Casein 
Album 


bo 


< 


Cow 


Koenig 


87.17 


12.83 


3.69 


3.02 0.53 


4.88 


0.71 


Cow 


Snyder 


87.0 


13.0 


4.0 


3.25 


5.0 


0.75 


Cow-Skim milk Snyder 


90.25 


9.75 


0.1 


3.70 


5.15 


0.80 


Cow 


Blyth 


86.87 


13.13 


3.50 


4.75 


4.0 


0.70 


Cow 


Douglas 


87.5 


12.5 


3.50 


3.65 


4.60 


0.75 


Cow 


Cameron 


87.0 


13.0 


4.0 


4.10 


4.28 


0.62 


Cow 


Wiley 


87.4 


12.6 


3.9 


3.00 


5.0 


0.70 


Ewe 


Koenig 


80.82 


19.18 


6.86 


4.97 1.55 


4.91 


0.89 


Ewe 


Voelcker 


83.70 


16.30 


4.45 


5.16 


5.73 


0.96 


Sheep 


Aikman 


83.0 


17.0 


5.3 


4.6 1.7 


4.6 


0.8 


Sheep 


Douglas 


81.08 


18.92 


7.67 


6.08 


4.26 


0.91 


Sheep 


Snyder 


82.25 


17.75 


5.3 


7.10 


4.35 


1.0 


Goat 


Koenig 


85.71 


14.29 


4.78 


3.20 1.09 


4.46 


0.76 


Goat 


Aikman 


85.5 


14.5 


4.8 


3.8 1.2 


4.0 


0.7 


Goat 


Voelcker 


84.48 


15.52 


6.11 


3.94 


4.68 


0.79 


Goat 


Wiley 


89.05 


10.95 


34 


2.80 


3.8 


0.95 


Mare 


Koenig 


90.78 


9.22 


1.21 


1.24 0.7 


5.67 


0.35 


Mare 


Snyder 


88.49 


11.51 


2.86 


3.35 


4.75 


0.55 


Mare 


Cameron 


90.31 


9.69 


1.06 


1.95 


6.28 


0.37 


Mare 


Wiley 


90.32 


9.68 


1.00 


1.90 


6.33 


0.45 


Ass 


Koenig 


89.64 


10.36 


1.64 


0.67 1.55 


5.99 


0.51 


Ass 


Chevallier 
















& Henry 


91.65 


8.35 


0.11 


1.82 


6.08 


0.34 


Ass 


Wiley 


91.51 


8.49 


0.93 


1.60 


5.60 


0.36 


Sow 


Koenig 


84.04 


15.96 


4.55 


7.23 


3.13 


1.05 


Sow 


Bunge 


82.3 


17.7 


6.9 


5.9 


3.8 


1.1 


Sow 


Snyder 


84.0 


16.0 


4.6 


7.25 


3.15 


1.05 


Dog 


Koenig 


75.44 


24.56 


9.57 


6.10 5.05 


3.08 


0.73 


Dog- 


Bunge 


75.6 


24.4 


12.5 


5.2 1.9 


3.5 


1.3 


Cat 


Koenig 


81.63 


18.37 


3.33 


3.12 5.96 


4.91 


0.58 


Cat 


Bunge 


81.7 


18.3 


3.3 


3.1 6.4 


4.9 


0.6 


Buffalo 


Koenig 


81.41 


18.59 


7.47 


5.85 0.25 


4.15 


0.87 


Buffalo 


Douglas 


82.57 


17.43 


7.63 


4.69 


4.30 


0.81 


Camel 


Koenig 


86.57 


13.43 


3.07 


4.00 


5.59 


0.77 


Mule 


Koenig 


91.50 


8.5 


1.59 


1.64 


4.80 


0.38 


Llama 


Koenig 


86.55 


13.45 


3.15 


3.00 0.90 


5.60 


0.80 


Elephant 


Koenig 


67.85 


32.15 


19.57 


3.09 


8.84 


0.65 


Porpoise 


Koenig 


41.11 


58.89 


45.80 


11.19 


1.33 


0.57 


Rabbit 


Bunge 


69.4 


30.6 


10.5 


15.5 


2.0 


2.6 


Guinea Pig 


Bunge 


41.1 


58.9 


45.8 


11.2 


1.3 


0.6 


R,eindeer 


Bunge 


68.2 


31.8 


17.1 


8.4 2.0 


2.8 


1.5 


Whale 


Douglas 


60.47 


39.53 


20.0 


12.42 


5.63 


1.48 


The milk 


of any family of animal 


ife is 


particularly and 


spe- 


cifically ada 


pted to the proper growth of the 


offspring of that 


par- 


ticular species. 















MILK 127 

The ingredients in the composition of the milk 
of different animals is practically the same, al- 
though a considerable variation occurs in the pro- 
portion in which the different constituents are pres- 
ent. The table on opposite page gives the com- 
position of the milk of different animals as deter- 
mined by various authorities. 

Development of offspring may be furthered by 
milk of a foreign nature' which is not to be com- 
pared, however, with natural maternal milk for the 
young. Bunge found that dog's milk had a mineral 
content exactly the same as that of a new born 
puppy. And the constituents in the milk of any 
mammal corresponds, with the composition and 
nature of the animal body. The caseins of differ- 
ent milks are different in chemical behavior and the 
rennet of the stomach is apparently specifically 
adapted for the coagulation of the casein produced 
by the female of the same race. Bunge has also 
shown that the percentage quantity of the con- 
stituents in the milk is dependent upon the rapidity 
of the growth of the organism. 

Time in days 
for the new-born 

animal to double 100 parts of milk contain 

Animal its weight Protein Ash Calcium Oxide 



Human 


180 


1.6 


0.2 


0.033 


Horse 


60 


2.0 


0.4 


0.124 


Calf 


47 


3.5 


0.7 


0.160 


Kid 


19 


4.3 


0.8 


0.210 


Pig 


18 


5-6 






Lamb 


10 


6.5 


0.9 


0.272 


Dog 


8 


7.1 


1.3 


0.453 


Cat 


7 


9.5 







128 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Rubner and Heubner have shown by experi- 
mentation that the assimilation of milk is generally 
better accomplished in healthy children than in 
adults. Blauberg reports the following percentage 
absorption of the ash of cow's and human milk : 

Per cent, of milk ash 

Kind of Milk Subject absorbed 

Cow's Infant 60.70 

Diluted cow's " 53.72 

Human " 79.42 

Human " 81.82 

Cow's Adult 53.20 

The absorption of the energy-creating constitu- 
ents of the milk is remarkably constant. This is 
illustrated by Rubner's experiments which show the 
physiological utilization of the total calories (fuel 

or food value) of milk: Percentage of Calories 

absorbed 
Human milk 91.6 to 94-0 

Diluted cow's milk 90.7 

Diluted cow's milk+milk sugar 92.2 

Cow's milk given adult 89.8 

According to Praunitz, milk is more poorly as- 
similated in the intestines of adults than other 
animal foods. The following table shows the as- 
similation of the various kinds of milk and milk pro- 
ducts, according to Koenig: 

Kind of Milk Composition Amount Assimilated 

or Milk Product Protein Fat Sugar Protein Fat Sugar 



Cow's Milk 


3.39 


3.68 


4.94 


3.19 


3.49 


4.84 


Goat's Milk 


3.76 


4.07 


4.64 


3.53 


3-87 


4.55 


Sheep's Milk 


5.15 


6.18 


4.17 


4.89 


5.87 


4.05 


Ass's Milk 


1.85 


1.37 


6.19 


1.79 


1.30 


601 


Butter 


0.86 


83.70 


0.80 


0.55 


81.19 


0.49 


Fatty Cheese 


26.21 


29.50 


3.39 


24.90 


26-58 


3.32 


Lean Cheese 


35.59 


12.35 


4.22 


31.81 


11.11 


4.14 



MILK 129 

The following is the nutritive value of the various 
kinds of milk and milk products, based on the above 
composition, expressed in calories per pound : 

Cow's Milk 306 Calories 

Goat's milk 324 

Sheep's milk 429 

Ass's milk 85 

Butter 1,124 

Fatty Cheese 1,731 

Lean Cheese 852 

The analysis of human (mother's) milk is given 
by various authorities as follows : 

Authority Water Casein Albumen Fat Milk Sugar Ash 



Bunge 


88.61 


1.16 


0.47 


3.40 


6.13 


0-23 


Lorand 


87.78 


0.80 


1.21 


3.74 


6.37 


0.30 


Koenig 


87.41 


1.03 


1.26 


3.78 


621 


0.31 


Richmond 


86.03 




1.27 


5.61 


6.98 


0.18 


Gerber 


88-02 




1.60 


2.90 


7.03 


0.31 


Wiley 


88.30 




1.50 


3.50 


6.50 


0.20 


N. Y. Tests 


87.75 




1-50 


3.70 


6.40 


0.30 



The following comparison of the relative per- 
centage composition of average cow's milk and hu- 
man milk, taken five and a half months after 
parturition, is of interest : 

Human Cow's 

Rubner and Soldner Rubner Van Slyke 

Heubner 

Protein 1.0 1.52 3.41 3.2 

Fat 3.0 3.28 3.65 3.9 

Milk Sugar 6.4 6.50 4.81 5.1 

Or, expressed in the relative calorific value of the 
different constituents, the Rubner analyses may be 

Stated as follows : Human Cow's 

Protein 7-4 21.3 

Fat 43.9 49.8 

Milk Sugar 48.7 28.9 



130 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

There are, therefore, tremendous differences in 
the composition of cow's milk and human milk, 
which fact forces the conclusion that cow's milk is 
not to be substituted for human milk in rearing a 
child and should never be considered if a mother is 
physically capable of suckling her baby. In case of 
the positive inability of a mother to directly nurture 
her offspring, cow's milk or some other animal's 
milk- can be used if scientifically modified, but such 
food substitution should be considered solely as an 
emergency measure, and never advocated or even 
considered by any mother in good or average health 
and with normal breasts. 

Camerer has found that human milk drawn 3 to 
12 days after parturition contains 0.2 milligrams 
of iron oxide per 100 c.c, while the later milk con- 
tains 0.1. The quantity is decreased if the environ- 
ment or the condition of the mother be poor. Using 
the customary methods of infant feeding with cow's 
milk, the child obtains too little iron. The quantity 
of calcium in cow's milk is in excess of the needs of 
the human infant. Patein and Daval report that 
human milk after the first month of lactation con- 
tains but 0.8 to 1 per cent, of casein, or one-third to 
one-fourth of that of cow's milk. Another distinc- 
tion between cow's and human milk, commented 
upon by Rubner and Heubner, is that cow's milk 
contains but little extractive nitrogen (which con- 
tains a considerable amount of carbon), while hu- 
man milk may contain 18 to 20 per cent, in that 
form. Lusk says, "The large protein content of 
cow's milk may be bad for the child. In the first 
place, it clots in a heavy mass in the baby's stomach, 
and in the second place, even though it be digested, 



MILK 131 

it is relatively much above the requirements of the 
organism and its specific dynamic action increases 
the amount of heat produced." Cow's milk can, of 
course be diluted with water so that its protein con- 
tent may approach that of human milk, but such dilu- 
tion reduces the quantity of fat and carbohydrates 
and these must be kept in the milk or added to the 
diluted milk in order to make a proper and well- 
balanced diet for a child. To obtain the needed fat 
content, "top milk" rich in fat may be taken from 
milk which has been standing, milk sugar may be 
used to augment the carbohydrate content, lime 
water to give an alkaline reaction and water to 
dilute the whole to the proper proportion of the 
prime constituents. Such a milk called "Modified 
Milk" was first introduced by Rotch of Boston, and 
is used quite extensively to-day. Human milk has 
a varying food value, dependent largely on the 
amount of fat present. Schlossmann gives the 
calorific value per litre of 19 samples of milk from 
different women as maximum 876, minimum 567, 
average 719 calories per litre, or 327 calories per 
pound, which is about the same as goat's milk and a 
little greater than the theoretical food value of 
cow's milk. 

Lusk says that the so-called "scientific" feeding 
of infants with substitutes for mother's milk is un- 
worthy of the name unless the calorific requirement 
is carefully considered. "From lack of this knowl- 
edge babies are frequently systematically starved." 
Nature provides the proper food for the young of 
every species and where man either wilfully, or from 
necessity, separates a child from its natural fountain 
of nourishment, the responsibility to produce food 



132 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

to equal or vie with that provided by an all-wise 
nature is great, and far beyond the sense of ap- 
preciation of ninety-nine per cent, of the Medical 
Profession, not to mention the average non-techni- 
cal parents. The following tests on Metabolism 
with infants using Mother's Milk and Modified 
Cow's Milk are of interest : 



Age of Food Meta- 
Child How Ingested bolism 
Authority months fed Calories Calories 


Added to child's 
organism Per 
Calories Cent. 


Itubner and Modified 

Heubner 7.5 cow's milk 682.8 593.2 
Camerer 9.0 Breastfed 480 420 


89.6 12.2 
60 15. 



It has been truly said that it is wonderful how a 
child's intuitive appetite can "determine the inges- 
tion of nutriment necessary to cover the energy re- 
quirements of his organism, and a small addition 
for normal development. A reduction of 15 per 
cent, in the intake of food would bring his pros- 
perous growth to a standstill." Dr. Holt, in his 
well-known catechism for mothers on the care and 
feeding of children, says that mother's milk is com- 
posed of 13 parts solids and 87 parts of water. 
The solids consist of fat, which is the cream, milk- 
sugar, proteids (the curd of the milk) and salts, 
and a healthy infant cannot be reared unless 
all these constituents are in his food in the proper 
proportion. Fat, he says, is needed for the growth 
of bones, nerves, the fat of the body and the pro- 
duction of heat; sugar produces heat and makes 
fat ; proteids are needed for the growth of the body 
cells; salts are needed for the making of bone, the 
functions of digestion and the "toning" of the en- 



MILK 133 

tire system. The water in the milk keeps the food 
in a state of minute subdivision, or in solution, so 
that the delicate organs of the infant can digest it, 
and it is also necessary for circulation in the body 
and to enable the system to eliminate its waste. 
There is no perfect, or even very satisfactory sub- 
stitute for good breast-feeding, and the mortality 
of bottle-fed infants during the first year is fully 
three times as great as that of those who are breast- 
fed, but "if a mother has, or has had, tuberculosis or 
any other serious chronic disease, or is herself in 
very delicate health, she should not try." Holt also 
says that we can "modify" cow's milk so that the 
great majority of healthy infants can digest it and 
thrive on it, but it must be remembered that there 
are differences which cannot be wholly overcome 
and we cannot make cow's milk into human milk — 
the species of animal life are entirely different. 
The milk of each species differs from that of all 
other species and there are peculiar properties 
physical and chemical in mother's milk (many not 
yet thoroughly understood or appreciated) which 
cow's milk does not possess. Cow's milk has a 
little more than half as much sugar and three times 
as much proteids and salts as mother's milk; its 
proteids, fats and salts are different and much more 
difficult of digestion, and its reaction is much more 
acid. Moreover, human milk as fed to a child is 
always fresh and sterile, and no animal milk, no 
matter how treated or handled, can be given an 
infant that does not contain some dirt and an 
abundance of bacteria, and although, fortunately, 
such Micro-organisms are generally harmless, there 
is always present a possible risk of infection. San- 



134 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

ford and Wilson, in Dr. Lusk's Laboratories, made 
some interesting tests which indicate that the growth 
of young animals is generally proportional to the 
calorific value of the milk fed to them. The ex- 
periments were conducted for about two weeks with 
suckling pigs weighing from 1050 to 1485 grams 
each at birth, and from 1890 to 2471 grams at the 
end of the tests. Some were fed with skim milk and 
others with milk fortified with glucose and milk 
sugar with total calorific values of food for the 
period varying from 3736 to 5216 per animal. The 
results showed that pigs of different litters and of 
different sizes and differently fed, gained in weight 
respectively 213, 214, 215, 218 and 222 grams per 
1000 calories of the total quantity of food ingested. 
Heubner has said that the average normal infant 
requires 100 calories per kilogram (2.2 lbs.) of body 
weight for normal nutrition during the first three 
months of life; 90 calories during the second three 
months and 80 and less thereafter. The energy 
content of the food should never sink below 70 
calories per kilogram, which is about the mainten- 
ance minimum. 

Ass's Milk 

Ass's milk most closely resembles human milk. 
It is easily digestible and is used at times in the 
Latin countries of Europe as food for feeble chil- 
dren and weak persons. In ancient times, quite a 
number of healing properties were ascribed to ass's 
milk, and we are told that Nero's consort, Poppa* 
Sabina, when on a journey always took along 500 
asses, in order to be able to bathe in their milk. In 
Barcelona, asses with covers marked "Approved 



MILK 135 

by the College of Physicians" are taken from door 
to door and milked for each customer. Asses are 
not subject to tuberculosis and their milk contains 
fewer bacteria than other kinds of milk. Its rather 
sweet taste is not agreeable to every one and its high 
price and scarcity operate against its general use, 
although the latter condition could be remedied if 
the animals were raised in large numbers. It has a 
specific gravity of about 1.036. 

Sheep's Milk 

Sheep's milk is the most nourishing of all the 
milks obtained from the various animals domesti- 
cated by the Caucasian race. In the Dutch Pro- 
vinces of Friesland and in Iceland, the Pyrenees, 
Appenines and Corsica, the milch sheep are found 
in great numbers and such sheep give five or six 
quarts of palatable milk per day each. The chief 
characteristic of sheep's milk is its high fat content 
and this is said to be increased at times by feeding 
the sheep with substances containing oil. Sheep's 
milk has a specific gravity of 1.035 (Koenig gives a 
minimum of 1.0298; maximum 1.0385), and it con- 
tains a considerable amount of iron. The ash con- 
tains 1.01 per cent, of oxide of iron, 30.17 per cent, 
of phosphorus, 31.12 per cent, of lime, and 7.63 per 
cent, of chlorine. When sheep's milk is evaporated, 
Koenig says that it contains 31.33 per cent, of pro- 
tein, 37.6 per cent, of fat, 38.84 per cent, of milk 
sugar and 4.59 per cent, of nitrogen. 

Goat's Milk 

Goats milk resembles that of the cow in some re- 
spects but it contains more albumen and generally 



136 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

much more fat. The great objection to goat's milk 
is its unpleasant and even offensive odor although 
this can be overcome to a great extent by proper 
care and determined mode of life. The fat content 
of goat's milk, like the sheep's, is increased by the 
use of oily or fatty food. Dr. Lorand says, "While 
staying on the Island of Capri, where this milk is 
much used, I found it much more digestible than 
cow's milk. This variety of milk deserves more at- 
tention than it receives, especially since the upkeep 
of goats entails but little expense, as the animal is 
much less particular in regard to the quality of its 
food than is the cow. The greatest care must be 
exercised in regard to absolute cleanliness and in 
this way the milk may be kept free from any ob- 
jectionable odor." Goat's milk has a specific 
gravity of 1.030; Koenig gives a minimum of 1.028 
and a maxium of 1.0360. Lorand quotes an analysis 
attributed to Koenig which gives the water content 
at 86.88 per cent., fat 9. 07, sugar 9.69, casein and 
albumen 3.76 and ash 0.85. Dr. Bell reported to 
the New York Academy of Medicine in 1906 the 
results of his successful experience with goat's milk 
for infant feeding, and further stated "I believe 
good milch goats (the Nubian* for instance) will 
give a larger milk ratio per unit expense of food 
and keeping than the cow. She is more docile, less 
excitable, not subject to tuberculosis or other dis- 
ease in this climate. Being a browser rather than 
a grazer she will thrive where cows would not; and 
above all she is cleanly. I believe an assured, non- 
contaminated goat's milk supply not only com- 
mercially possible, but profitable." 



MILK 



137 



Composition of Cow's Milk 

The constituents of milk are numerous and of 
diverse character but may be generally classified 
as: water, fats, substances containing nitrogen 
(albuminoids) , sugar and ash. Excepting the water, 
they are collectively known as milk solids. The 
solids exist partly in solution, partly in semi-solu- 
tion and partly in suspension in the water. The 
compounds of milk are at times divided into 
arbitrary groups and a division may be made, on the 
basis of the milk fat, into (1) fat and (2) milk- 
serum, which includes all the milk constituents ex- 
cept the fat. Separator skim-milk is nearly pure- 
milk-serum. 

The following arrangement shows the general 
relation of the compounds contained in milk and 
the percentage figure of average cow's milk as 
suggested by Van Slyke : 



Milk 



Water 
87.1 



Solids 
12.9 



Fat 
3.9 



Solids 
Not Fat 
9.0 



Nitrogen 
Compounds 
3.2 



Milk Sugar 
5.1 



Casein 
2.5 



(Albumen, 
Etc. 
07 



Carbon Dioxide 
Gases Nitrogen \ Ash (Salts) 

Oxygen \ 0.7 



The average composition of cow's milk* accordin >; 
to Babcock is : 



138 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



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MILK 



139 



According to Farmers' Bulletin No. 29, United 
States Department of Agriculture, cow's milk has 
the following composition: 



Water 



Solids 







Per Cent. 




. . 87.0 


Fat 3.6 


3.6 




Casein 


3.3 


Solids 


Albumen 


0.7 


Not 


Sugar 


4.7 


Fat 9.4 


[Ash 


0.7 



13.0 



Total 



100.0 



Table of Average Analyses of Cow's Milk (Van 
Slyke) : 

Total Albu- 

Average of 5552 Water Solids Fat Casein men Sugar Ash 

U. S.. Analyses 87.1 12.9 3.9 2.5 0.7 5.1 0.7 

Average Cheese 

Factory Milk for 

Season May-Nov. 

New York State 87.4 12.6 3.75 2.45 0.7 5.0 0.7 



Aikman has prepared the following table of the 
Composition of Milk expressed in percentages : 



Fleischmann 



Kirchner 



American English 

Average 

Limits Limits Limits of 120,540 

Average of Average of Average of samples 

Variation Variation Variation (Vieth) 



Water 


87.75 


87.5 to 
89.5 


87.5 


83 to 
90 


87.00 


81.1 to 
91.4 


87.1 


Fat 


3.40 


2.7 to 
4.3 


3.4 


.8 to 
8.0 


4.00 


2 to 

8 


4.1 


Nitrogenous 
Substances 
















commonly kr 
as Casein 


lown 
3.50 


3 to 
4 


3.9 


2.28 to 
5.73 


3.30 


2to\ 
4.5 ) 




Milk Sugar 


4.60 


3.6 to 


4.5 


3 to 


4.95 


4to( 


8.8 






5.5 




6 




5.5 / 


Ash 


0.75 


.6 to 
.9 


0.75 


.6 to 
.9 


0.75 


.6to\ 
.9 / 




Total Solids 


12.25 


9.9 to 
14.7 


12.5 


7.2 to 
12.63 


13.00 


8.6 to 
18.9 


12.9 



140 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Limits even wider than those cited above have 
been published. Thus a sample of cow's milk has 
been found to contain only 0.17 per cent, of fat 
(Vieth) while another sample has been found to 
contain as much as 11.06 per cent. 

The results before quoted may be summarized as 



vs: 


Average 


Limits 


Water 


87.34 


81 to 91 


Total Solids 


12.66 


7.2 to 18.9 


Fats 


3.72 


.25 to 11.0 


Solids — not fat 


8.93 


5.6 to 12.6 



The solids not fat consist of 3.594 per cent, of 
casein and albumen; 4.614 per cent, of milk sugar 
and 0.73 per cent, of ash. 

Wing has tabulated the following record of 
average analyses published by recognized authori- 
ties: 





Babcock 


Oliver 


Cornevin 




American 


English 


French 


Water 


87.17 


87.60 


87.75 


Fat 


3.69 


3.25 


3.30 


Casein 


3.02 


3.40 


3.00 


Albumen 


0.53 


0.45 




Sugar 


4.88 


4.55 


4.80 


Ash 


0.71 


0.75 


0.75 



The following from Koenig shows the range of 
variation of the several constituents in nearly 800 
analyses collected from all parts of the world : 





Maximum 


Minimum 


Water 


90.69 


80.32 


Fat 


6.47 


1.67 


Casein 


4.23 


1.79 


Albumen 


1.44 


0.25 


Sugar 


6.03 


2.11 


Ash 


1.21 


0.35 



MILK 141 

An analysis of 7 per cent, of fat is extremely 
rare and should be regarded with suspicion unless 
well authenticated. The mixed milk of herds 
seldom falls below 3 per cent, of fat and rarely rises 
above 5.5 per cent. 

Snyder states that the average composition of 
milk with the extent of range is generally as fol- 



J 


Per Cent. 


Range Per Cent. 


Water 


87.00 


89.6 to 82.4 


Fat 


3.50 


2.5 to 6.0 


Casein 


3.25 


2.5 to 4.0 


Albumen 


0.50 


0.5 to 0.8 


Milk Sugar 


5.00 


4.3 to 6.0 


Ash 


0.75 


0.6 to 0.8 



A British authority recently stated that the range 
in good normal milk should be within the following 
limits : 



Water 


90.0 to 83.65 per cent. 


Fat 


2.8 to 4.5 


Casein and Albumen 


3.3 to 5.55 " 


Sugar 


3.0 to 5.5 * " 


Ash 


0.7 to 0.8 



Richmond has made a very large number of 
analyses of milk sold in England and the following 
tabulated results are interesting and very uniform: 

Number of 

Milks Total 

Year Analyzed Solids Fat 



1900 


13,798 


12.57 


3.64 


1901 


13,936 


12.63 


3.72 


1902 


12,914 


12.73 


3.82 


1903 


15,313 


12.78 


3.83 


1904 


15,910 


12.68 


3.74 


1905 


14,828 


12.70 


3.73 


1906 




12.64 


3.71 



142 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Billitz gives the average results of 187,610 
analyses of milk in Lombardy during a period of 
ten years as specific gravity 1.0315, Fat 3.55, 
Solids — not fat 8.81 per cent. The poorest milk of 
one herd had 2.70 fat and 8.45 other solids, and 
the richest milk of a herd 4.10 fat and 9.23 solids 
— not fat. 

An analysis of skim-milk, whey and buttermilk 
has been given by Van Slyke as follows : 

Total Albu- 





Water Solids Fat 


Casein 


men 


Sugar 


Ash 


Skim-milk 












(separator) 


90.3 9.7 0.10 


2.75 


0.80 


5.25 


0.80 


Whey 


93.4 6.6 0.35 


0.10 


0.75 


4.80 


0.60 


Buttermilk 


90.6 9.4 0.10 


2.80 


0.80 


*4.40 


0.70 


*.60 per cent. 


lactic acid in addition. 











The Specific Gravity of Cow's Milk 

Some of the solids of milk are heavier than water 
and some of them lighter, but milk as a whole has a 
specific gravity somewhat greater than water. The 
variation in the specific gravity is considerable, being 
from 1.027 to 1.035 at 60° F., the average being 
about 1.32 or a little less. In general, the effect of 
an increase in the solids of the milk is to increase its 
specific gravity, although in milk very rich in fats, 
the specific gravity may be lessened. Koenig gives 
the minimum as 1.0264 and the maximum 1.0370, 
with a mean of 1.0315, and compares this with hu- 
man milk 1.027 minimum and 1.032 maximum; 
mare's milk 1.0347 mean; ass's milk 1.032 mean; 
ewe's milk 1.0298 minimum, 1.0385 maximum and 
1.0341 mean; and goat's milk 1.028 minimum, 
1.036 maximum and 1.0305 mean. 



MILK 143 

The U. S. Official Standards for Milk, Cream, Etc. 

The Department of Agriculture has established 
the following official standard for purity of dairy 
products, defining also what is meant by the terms 
used in designating certain commodities. 

A. MILKS 

(1) MILK is the fresh, clean, lacteal secretion obtained by 
complete milking of one or more healthy cows, properly fed 
and kept, excluding that obtained within 15 days before and 10 
days after calving, and contains not less than 8.5 per cent, of 
solids — not fat, and not less than 3.25 per cent, of milk fat. 

(2) BLENDED MILK is milk modified in its composition 
so as to have a definite and stated percentage of one or more 
of its constituents. 

(3) SKIM MILK is milk from which a part or all of the 
cream has been removed and contains not less than 9.25 per 
cent, of milk solids. 

(4) PASTEURIZED MILK is milk that has been heated 
below boiling, but sufficiently to kill most of the active organ- 
isms present, and immediately cooled to 50° F. or lower. 

(5) STERILIZED MILK is milk that has been heated at 
a temperature of boiling water, or higher, for a length of time 
sufficient to kill all organisms present. 

(6) CONDENSED MILK, EVAPORTED MILK is fresh, 
pure, normal milk from which a considerable portion of water 
has been evaporated and to which sugar (sucrose) has been 
added, and contains not less than 28 per cent, of milk solids 
of which not less than 27.5 per cent, is milk fat. 

(7) CONDENSED SKIM-MILK is skim-milk from which 
a considerable portion of water has been evaporated. 

(8) BUTTERMILK is the product that remains when 
butter is removed from milk or cream in the process of 
churning. 

B. CREAM 

(1) CREAM is that portion of milk, rich in milk-fat, which 
rises to the surface of milk on standing or is separated from 



144 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

it by centrifugal force, is fresh and clean and contains not less 
than 18 per cent, of milk-fat. 

(2) EVAPORATED CREAM, CLOTTED CREAM is 
cream from which a considerable portion of water has been 
evaporated. 

C. MISCELLANEOUS MILK PRODUCTS OTHER 
THAN BUTTER, CHEESE, FATS AND ICE-CREAMS 

(1) WHEY is the product remaining after the removal of 
fat and casein from milk in cheese-making. 

(2) KUMISS is the product made by the alcoholic fermen- 
tation of mare's or cow's milk. 

State Laws and Standards Regarding Composition of Milk 
and Cream. 

Several states have adopted minimum standards 
for milk products and any milk, cream or butter 
that falls below the standard is considered adult- 
erated or abnormal and unsatisfactory. The various 
state laws require milk with from 11.5 to 13 per 
cent, of total solids, from 2.5 to 3.5 per cent, of fat 
and 8 to 9.5 per cent, solids — not fat. Skim-milk 
is required to have from 8 to 9.3 per cent, of total 
solids in the various states, and cream from 15 to 20 
per cent, of fat. 

AMERICAN STATE MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR 
MILK AND CREAM 







MILK 


CREAM 




Total Solids 


Fats 


Fats 




Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


California 


11.5 


3 


18 


Colorado 




3 


16 


Connecticut 


11.75 


3.25 


16 


Florida 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Georgia 


11.75 


3.25 


18 



MILK 



145 





M 


ILK 


CREAM 




Total Solids 


Fats 


Fats 




Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent, 


Idaho 


11. 


3.2 


18 


Illinois 


11.5 


3. 


18 


Indiana 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Iowa 


12. 


3. 


16 


Kansas 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Kentucky 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Louisiana 


12. 


3.5 




Maine 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Massachusetts 


12.15 


3.35 


15 


Michigan 


12.5 


3. 




Minnesota 


13. 


3.25 


20 


Missouri 


12. 


3.25 


18 


Montana 


11.75 


3.25 


20 


Nebraska 




3. 


18 


Nevada 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


New Hampshire 


12. 




18 


New Jersey 


11.5 


3. 


16 


New York 


11.5 


3. 


18 


North Carolina 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


North Dakota 


12. 


3. . 


15 


Ohio 


12. 


3. 




Oklahoma 




3. 


18 


Oregon 


12. 


3.2 


20 


Pennsylvania 


12. 


3.25 


18 


Rhode Island 


12 


2.5 




South Dakota 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Texas 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Utah 


12. 


3.2 




Vermont 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Virginia 


11.75 


3.25 


18 


Washington 


12. 


3.25 


18 


Wisconsin 


11.5 


3. 


18 


Wyoming 




3.25 


18 


Other states and territories have established no legal 


standard. 


Federal standard 


11.75 


3.25 


18 



146 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The British "Sale of Food and Drugs Act" fix 
the minimum limit for fat at 3 per cent, and that 
for non- fatty solids at 8.5 per cent. Milk contain- 
ing less than these amounts being regarded as 
adulterated or "not of the nature, substance and 
quality demanded." The average per cent, of fat 
in the milk supplied by one of the principal London 
Dairy Companies in 1910 was 3.6 per cent, for the 
morning milk and 4 per cent, for the evening milk, 
the total solids being 12.4 and 12.6 per cent, re- 
spectively. Sohn gives the composition of mixed 
herds of cows supplying milk to the various towns 
of Great Britain as: 

Protein, 3 to 4 per cent. ; average about 3.5 per cent. 
Fat, 3 to 4 per cent. ; average about 3.5 per cent. 
Sugar, 4 to 6 per cent. ; average about 5.0 per cent. 
Mineral Salts, average about 0.7 per cent. 
Water, 86 to 87 per cent. ; average nearer 87 per cent. 
Specific Gravity, 1.030 to 1.032. 

Breed of Cows Affect Milk 

It is well known that the fat content of milk 
varies in a somewhat characteristic way with the 
breed of cows. While there is a marked variation 
in cows of the same breed, there is found to be a 
fairly uniform difference, more or less marked, if we 
consider the averages of different breeds in herds. 
Dairymen are aware that so far as the quality is 
concerned, no cows yield so rich a milk as the Jersey 
and Guernsey cows. 

The following table compiled from a large num- 
ber of analyses taken of milk from six different 
breeds of cows, were published as a record of the 
work of an American Experiment Station: 



MILK 



147 



'8 3 3 Jg 

p a >< * 



8 

Pli 



e3 



05 « 

o o 



, 03 

O O 



a 



OS 

° <5 



o 


o 
o 


CO 


o 


^ 


CO 


CM 


00 



o 

CO 


Oi 

CO 


CO 
CM 


U5 

Oi 


<* 


00 


CO 
00 


CO 
00 


00 
CO 


o 


Oi 


CO 



CO 

<* 
b- 


co 
b- 


o 

CO 

b- 


00 

©i 
CO 


6 


6 


6 


6 


T— 1 


1— 1 


b- 

q 


CO 

CO 


»o 


»o 


iO 


H5 



rH rH CO 

Oi CO b- 



rH <N »Q 

CO rH i-l 



03 



CO 
CO 

o 



00 


CM 


(M 


(M 


CO 


1— 1 


b- 


XO 


CM 


I— 1 




CM 







a 


cu 


S3 
03 




>-< 


# o 


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i-M 


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148 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The Milking Records of a London Dairy Show 
gave the following averages: 

Breed of Cow Total Solids Fat 

Jersey 14.65 5.02 

Guernsey 14.23 4.90 

Ayrshire 13.43 4.15 

Short Horn 12.87 3.73 

The following figures taken from the records of 
the New York (Geneva) Agricultural Experi- 
mental Station, represent averages of many cows of 
various breeds for several periods of lactation : 





Per Cent. Fat 


Per Cent 


Breed of Cow 


Highest 


Lowest 


Average 


of Water 


Jersey 


6.09 


4.96 


5.60 


84.60 


Guernsey 


6.13 


4.51 


5.30 


85.10 


Devon 


5.23 


4.30 


4.60 


85.50 


Short Horn 


4.56 


4.28 


4.44 


85.70 


Ayrshire 


4.24 


3.20 


3.60 


87.25 


American Holderness 3.92 


3.49 


3.73 


87.35 


Holstein Friesian 


3.85 


2.88 


3.36 


88.20 



Still other figures, compiled by Wing, from a 
large number of analyses made at various Ameri- 
can Experiment Stations, are given to show how 
the breed of cows influences largely the percentages 
of fat in milk and to a smaller degree the content 
of solids — not fat. 





Solids 


Fat 


Jersey 


14.70 


5.35 


Guernsey 


14.71 


5.16 


Devon 


14.50 


4.60 


Short Horn 


13.38 


4.05 


Ayrshire 


12.61 


3.66 


Holstein Friesian 


11.85 


3.42 



MILK 149 

The variation, due to breed, included apparently 
not only the amount of fat and the color and melt- 
ing point of the fat, but the size of the milk globules. 
In some breeds the milk globules are uniformly 
large, in others very small, and in still others both 
large and small globules are found. 

It is generally believed that the fat content of 
milk is materially affected by the age of the cow, 
being greater at maturity and less in early life and 
when old. Tests made, one on cows of all ages, for 
a week at a time, and the other upon a single herd 
extending over several years, show that the age of 
a cow has but little influence upon the richness of 
its milk. 

"Official" Weekly Tests of Observation on Cornell 
Holstein-Freisian Cows University Herd, 8 Years 
Age Average Fat Average Fat 

of Cows No. of Cows Content No. of Cows Content 



2 years 


147 


3.29 


25 


3.71 


3 


< 


81 


3.31 


25 


3.71 


4 


[< 


59 


3.41 


18 


3.68 


5 


< 


37 


3.42 


12 


3.60 


6 


1 


36 


3.34 


8 


3.49 


7 


< 


22 


3.25 


5 


3.68 


8 


' 


14 


3.40 


) 




9 


' 


10 


3.37 


I 4 


3.89 


10 " 


9 


3.83 


J 




11 & 


12 years 


4 


3.57 







Influences of the Period of Lactation upon Cow's Milk 

Cook has said that on an average, cows give the 
thinnest milk just after calving; it becomes slightly- 
richer during the next two weeks and then it holds 
almost uniform in quality for 4 or 5 months, after 



150 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

which it gradually increases in richness as the cow 
comes near the calving period again and by the 
ninth month from the last calving, it is almost one- 
seventh richer than it was during the earliest 
months. The difference in the quality of the milk 
is manifested almost entirely in the fat, the other 
solids remaining practically the same. Wing main- 
tains that after the third or fourth week of lacta- 
tion the percentage of fat in the milk remains fairly 
constant until the seventh or eighth month or until 
the quantity of milk begins to rapidly diminish, but 
while the percentage of fat does not change, he says 
that the character of the fat undergoes several 
marked and characteristic changes. The fatty 
globules are large in size during the early period of 
lactation and constantly diminish in size but in- 
crease in number as the period advances, the total 
amount of fat being practically constant. In the 
early period of lactation, olein represents a large 
proportion of the fat, possibly 50 per cent., and as 
the lactation progresses, the proportion of olien de- 
creases and stearin and palmitin increase until the 
proportion of olein may fall as low as 20 per cent. 
Dean states that his experience suggests that if the 
lactation period of a cow be divided into three parts 
of three months each, there is an increase in fat 
content of the milk of 17 per cent, and 46 per cent., 
respectively, in the second and third periods over 
the first. This statement does not seem to be sub- 
stantiated by the recorded experiences and investi- 
gations of other experts. The following data from 
the records of the New York (Geneva) Station are 
of interest: 



MILK 151 

Per Cent, of 
Water in Milk 
86.00 
86.50 
86.53 
86.36 
86.25 
86.00 
85.82 
85.67 
85.54 
85.17 

Variation in the Composition of Milk as Drawn from 
a Cow in the Various Stages of One Milking. 

Boussingault carried out some experiments which 
illustrate that there is a steady increase in the total 
solids during the whole period of milking. In this 
experiment, the milk drawn from the cow's udder 
was divided into six consecutive portions and 



dumber of Months 


Per Cent, of 


of Lactation 


Fat in Milk 


1 


4.54 


2 


4.33 


3 


4.28 


4 


4.39 


5 


4.38 


6 


4.53 


7 


4.56 


8 


4.66 


9 


4.79 


10 


5.00 



analyzed : 






Time D 


ivisions 








1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


Solids 


10.47 


10.75 


10.85 


11.23 


11.63 


12.67 


Fat 


1.70 


1.76 


2.10 


2.54 


3.14 


4.08 


Solids-not-fat 


8.77 


8.99 


8.75 


8.69 


8.49 


8.59 



It will be seen from the above that the increase 
is limited to the fat. 

Van Slyke conducted and recorded certain tests 
which also illustrate the general rule that the first 
milk drawn contains the least fat, and the last milk 
drawn, known as the "strippings," is the richest 

in fat. Per Cent, of Fat in Milk 

Cow 1 Cow 2 Cow 3 

First portion drawn 0.90 1.60 1.60 

Second " " 2.60 3.20 3.25 

Third " " 5.35 4.10 5.00 

Fourth " " 9.80 8.10 8.30 



152 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Snyder gives some figures showing the difference 
between "fore milk" and "strippings" which also 
indicate that the casein, ash and sugar content of 
milk remain comparatively constant, but the fat 
content varies so greatly that the importance of 
careful and thorough milking, as well as the mixing 
of milk, is most evident. The composition of the 
first pint and the last pint from two cows are given 
herewith : 



Cow 


No. 1 


Cow No. 2 


First Pint 


Last Pint 


First Pint 


Last Pint 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Total solids 9.42 


19.49 


10.10 


18.47 


Fat 0.71 


10.84 


1.02 


9.49 


Solids — not fat 8.71 


8.65 


9.08 


8.98 


Casein, Albumen 3.44 


3.51 


3.35 


3.65 


Ash 0.68 


0.72 


0.70 


0.74 



Variation of Time Between Milkings in Relation to the 
Milk. 

As a rule the longer the time between two suc- 
cessive milkings, the smaller is the fat content of 
the milk, and the shorter the time between milkings, 
the greater is the percentage of fat in the milk. 
When the time between milkings is uniformly equal, 
the variation of fat in milk is small, provided the 
general environment, food and health of the animal 
remain the same. Wing says: "Milk is richest in 
fat that is drawn after the shortest period, and this 
has been shown to be the case when cows have been 
milked three or four or even five times per day." 
This is a general rule, but, of course, there are many 
exceptions, and the physical condition and vitality 
of the cow as well as regular periods between milk- 
ings, must be considered. Aikman says that 
"When a cow is milked three or four times a day, 



MILK 153 

an increase in its amount to the extent of 20 per 
cent, and an increase in its fat to the extent of 25 
per cent, may be obtained over that gained when 
it is only twice milked." The general practice is 
to milk cows twice a day, and more uniform milk 
is obtained if the period between milkings is kept 
constant. 

Conditions Influencing the Quality of Milk 

Breed and individuality of the cow and the 
period of lactation are important factors influenc- 
ing the quality of milk. We have also seen that 
the extent of milking and the periods between 
milkings play an important part and, moreover,, 
the milk varies very materially in fat contents 
depending upon the time when it is drawn in rela- 
tion to the total time involved in each separate 
milking. The influence of food has probably been 
both over and under-estimated and the modern 
tendency seems to rather under-estimate the effect 
that feeding has on milk secretion. Cows must be 
properly fed and be nourished with a well adjusted 
diet, if they are expected to yield their maximum 
quantity of rich milk — this is an inexorable law of 
nature. Insufficient or unnatural feeding is bound 
to impoverish the milk yield both in quality and 
quantity. A cow, notwithstanding her appearance 
of phlegmatic but kindly stoicism, is an extremely 
nervous animal, and biological laws suggest that 
her unnatural life and artificial existence in the 
servitude of man, would make of her a creature 
sensitive to environment and disease. The cow is 
subject to indisposition that cannot be expressed. 
It is influenced by climate and storms, excitement, 
noise and commotion, exertion and the season of 



154 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

the year, etc. The normal effect of a slight 
feverish condition is to increase the percentage of 
fat and albumen in the milk; if the fever continues 
or grows severe the fat content of the milk falls 
as quickly as it had risen and to a correspondingly 
lower point. The proportion of albumen in milk 
is very largely influenced by the physical condition 
of the cow, and, whereas the food, if properly 
nourishing with ample calorific value, does not 
materially affect the fat and solids in milk, yet the 
quality and physical characteristics of the constit- 
uents in the milk and particularly of the fat, are 
materially influenced by the nature of the food 
consumed. Abnormal milk samples are frequently 
obtained at Fairs and Dairy Shows. A cow at a 
Fair amidst excitement, Aikman tells us, yielded 
milk with only 10.85 per cent, of total solids and 
1.85 per cent, of fat, and next day when quiet and 
in a normal condition gave milk which showed 
12.75 per cent, of total solids and 3.64 per cent, of 
fat. At times excitement results in abnormally 
good milkings; 19.5 per cent, of total solids, and 
11.6 per cent, of fat have been obtained from an 
average good cow under the unnatural conditions 
prevailing at a County Fair. 

Colostrum Milk. 

The first milk secreted by a cow after parturi- 
tion and for a short time before calving is quite 
distinct in composition and physical properties 
from that produced after the secretion has become 
well established. Such milk is called "colostrum" 
or "beastings" and is ordinarily considered unfit 
for consumption or manufacture. It is a turbid 
yellow in color, has a high specific gravity fre- 



MILK 155 

quently reaching 1.064, and has a sweet, saltish 
taste, a characteristic oily feeling and a viscous 
slimy nature with strong and peculiar odor. When 
boiled it coagulates on account of the large amount 
of albumen present and when hot water is poured 
into colostrum milk, it curdles. The term "colos- 
trum" is used because of the presence in such milk 
of circular bodies larger than the fat globules which 
are known as colostrum cells. These cells resemble 
in appearance white blood corpuscles from which 
it is supposed they are derived. The colostrum 
cells begin to make their appearance in milk about 
a week before a calf is born, and they decrease 
materially four or five days after calving. The 
change is a gradual and progressive one and is 
more or less dependent upon the physical condition 
of the animal. The colostrum acts as a purge upon 
the young calf, and there seems to be no grounds 
whatever for the belief, somewhat popular, that 
colostrum is not suitable as a food for the young 
calf. Nature does not supply food unsuited to her 
natural offspring. 

The following are several analyses of colostrum 
milk reported by authorities, some of them being 
the average results obtained from many samples 
tested from different cows after parturition: 

Total Albu- 

Water Solids Fat Casein men Sugar Ash 

Eugling 71.69 28.31 3.37 4.83 15.85 2.48 1.78 

Snyder 71.50 28.50 6.04 3.50 12.67 4.85 1.35 

Richmond 72.39 27.61 1.30 23.70 1.52 1.09 

Richmond 75.51 24.49 6.32 14.91 2.17 1.09 

Colostrum milk should never be mixed with 
other milk. It prevents creaming by the gravity 
process and clogs the separator. It produces an 



156 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

inferior butter product and causes trouble in 
cheese-making, as it seriously interferes with the 
curing and keeping qualities of the cheese. Colos- 
trum differs from normal milk in the fact that 
it contains grape sugar to a very large extent, in 
lieu of the milk sugar of ordinary milk. It has 
much more ash, and nearly half of it (41.43 per 
cent.) consists of phosphoric acid as against about 
27 per cent, in the ash of normal milk. Emmerling 
found globulin in colostrum to the extent of 8.3 
per cent., also such bodies as lecithin, cholesterin, 
urea and nuclein. The fat of colostrum has a 
higher melting point than the fat of ordinary milk. 
Colostrum is not as objectionable for hygienic 
reasons as it is for manufacturing reasons, due to 
its effect upon the uniform quality of milk and its 
deleterious and erratic effects upon dairy products. 

Milk Serum. 

Milk serum consists of all the constituents of 
the milk except the fat, and the term serum solids 
is applied to those substances of milk which are 
dissolved in the water, i. e., the sugar, ash, albumen 
and casein taken collectively. 

Milk Fat. 

Milk Fat, also called Butter Fat, is not a single 
chemical compound, but is a mixture of a consider- 
able number of separate and distinct fats, most of 
which are compounds called glycerides, each glyc- 
eride being formed by the chemical union of glyc- 
erine as a base with some acid or acids of a particu- 
lar kind. The fats in milk are of two kinds, volatile 
and non- volatile ; to the former class belong the 
essential oils that give to milk and its products 
their characteristic odor and flavor ; the latter make 



MILK 157 

up about 85 per cent, of the total fat content of 
milk and consist of glycerides which differ from 
each other chiefly in their hardness or melting 
point. The chief normal volatile fats are butyrin, 
and caporin, whereas the non-volatile fats are olein, 
palmitin, myristin, stearin, etc. Brown gives the 
following percentage of fatty acids in milk: 

Per Cent. Per Cent. 

Oleic 33.95 Butyric 6.23 

Palmitic 40.51 Laurie 2.73 

Myristic 10.41 Caproic 2.32 

Stearic 1.91 Caprylic .53 

Dioxystearic 1.04 Capric .34 

The melting point of palmitin is 144.6° F., of 
stearin 123° F., and of myristin 88° F. All the 
other fats, with the exception of caprin, are liquid 
at ordinary temperature, and the melting point of 
milk fat varies from about 84° to 106° F., depend- 
ing upon the proportion of the higher or lower 
melting point fats therein. Milk fat contains about 
12.5 per cent, of glycerin in combination with acids. 
Of the fat acids in butter fat, about 87.5 per cent, 
consist of the insoluble fat acids, while in other 
forms of animal fat, such as lard and beef fat, the 
amount of these insoluble fat-acids is considerably 
greater. 

Duclaux has given the composition of butter fat 
as follows: 

Stearin, palmitin, olein and traces of myristin Per Cent. 

and butin 91.50 

Butyrin 4.20 

Capronin 2.50 

Caprylin, Caprinin and traces of Laurin 1.80 

Total 100.00 



158 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Myristin occurs in nutmegs; butyrin in another 
combination flavors pineapples and rum; caprinin 
is found in cocoanut fat, mutton fat, etc. ; caprylin 
is a by-product of alcoholic fermentation and also 
occurs in cocoa fat; laurin is found in sweet bay; 
so it is evident that there are some curious rela- 
tionships in flavoring materials. 

Milk fat is more digestible than almost any other 
fat and contains minute quantities of lecithin, — a 
fat containing phosphorus. 

The Albuminoids of Milk. 

There are four nitrogen-containing or protein 
bodies in milk, viz.: casein or caseinogen (to distin- 
guish it from pure casein), albumen, lactoprotein — 
which has been called albuminose or galactine, and 
lactoglobulin. As the latter two are present in 
such small quantities, they are generally ignored, 
although much lactoglobulin is present in colos- 
trum, — 8 per cent, having been reported. 

Milk Casein. 

Casein is the most important nitrogen compound 
in milk. It has a high food value and its presence 
makes it possible to convert milk into cheese. It 
is the chief constituent of the curd or coagulum of 
milk. The casein content of milk varies from about 
2 to 4.5 per cent, and its composition is stated by 
Kirchner as follows: 



Carbon 


53.00 per cent. 


Hydrogen 


7.12 " " 


Nitrogen 


15.65 " 


Oxygen 


22.60 " 


Sulphur 


.78 " " 


Phosphorus 


.85 " " 


Total 


100.00 " 



MILK 159 

In milk the protein molecule of casein is com- 
bined with calcium, or some calcium compound, 
and hence the proper chemical name of milk-casein 
is calcium-casein. It exists in milk not in solution, 
but in the form of extremely minute, solid, gelat- 
inous particles in suspension or in a colloidal state. 
When milk sours, the lactic acid formed, acts upon 
the casein and the action of acids on casein is 
accelerated by an increase of temperature within 
certain limits; but heat alone, even at the boiling 
point of water, does not coagulate the casein in 
milk. The forming of a peculiar skin on the sur- 
face of milk heated above 140° F. is largely due to 
the casein content of the milk, although the skin 
itself has the chemical composition approaching 
evaporated milk. 

Milk Albumen. 

The albumen of milk is nearly identical with egg 
albumen or the "white" of the egg. Albumen and 
casein have about the same chemical composition, 
but possess different properties. Sebelien gives the 
composition of milk albumen or lactalbumin as : 



Carbon 


52.19 Per Cent. 


Hydrogen 


7.18 " 


Nitrogen 


15.77 " 


Oxygen 


23.13 " 


Sulphur 


1.73 " 



Total 100.00 



Albumen differs from casein in not containing 
phosphorus, and from the other albuminoids of 
milk in its sulphur content. Its average percentage 
in milk, according to Kirchner, is .6 of 1 per cent., 
its amount varying in normal milk from 0.2 to 0.8 



160 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

per cent. It exists in a state of solution and is not 
coagulated with the casein in cheese-making, but 
under such circumstances, chiefly passes into the 
whey. When milk is heated at 158° to 167° F., the 
albumen is coagulated to a great extent. 

The nitrogenous constituents of milk are all 
considered of equivalent food value and are classed 
as protein. The proteids are the most important 
constituents of food, for they build up and repair 
the muscles, brain, nerves, and other bodily struc- 
tures. 

Milk Sugar. 

Milk sugar, or lactose, is characteristic of milk 
and is not found elsewhere. It exists in solution in 
the milk serum and has the same chemical compo- 
sition as cane sugar. Milk sugar has very much 
less sweetening power than ordinary sugar and is 
not as soluble. It is easily decomposed by the 
action of bacteria and readily converted into lactic 
acid; it thus plays an important part indirectly in 
butter and cheese-making, also in lactic buttermilk 
and the natural souring of milk. The following 
is the composition of milk sugar: 

Carbon 40 per cent. Hydrogen 6.10 per cent. 

Oxygen 48.9 " " Water 5.00 " 

Milk sugar is soluble in six times its weight of 
water, while ordinary sugar dissolves in one-third 
of its weight of water. The specific gravity of 
milk sugar is 1.53, that of cane sugar being 1.60. 
The sugar of milk passes largely into the whey in 
cheese-making and forms over 70 per cent, of the 
solids in whey. The milk sugar of commerce is 
generally made by evaporating whey and purify- 
ing the product thus obtained. 



MILK 161 

Milk sugar does not ferment with ordinary yeast, 
but certain special yeasts which are used in the 
preparation of keffir, koumiss, etc., have the power 
of transforming it into alcohol. 

The Salts of Milk. 

The salts of milk, despite their comparatively 
small proportions and generally believed insig- 
nificance, exert an influence of some importance 
on the nature and properties of milk. The salts 
of milk are generally classified under the designa- 
tion "ash" and are found in the grayish white ash 
obtained when the milk solids are burned. Schrodt 
and Wiley have each given average analyses of the 
composition of the ash of milk, which are herewith 
given comparatively: 





Schrodt 


Wiley 


Potash 


25.42 


28.7 


Soda 


10.94 


6.7 


Lime 


21.45 


. 20.3 


Magnesia 


2.54 


2.0 


Ferric Oxide 


0.11 


4.0 


Sulphuric Anhydride 


4.11 




Phosphoric Anhydride 


24.11 


29.3 


Chlorine 


14.60 


11.0 


Carbonic Acid 




1.0 




103.28 


103.0 


Less oxygen as chlorine 


3.28 


3.0 



Total 100.00 100.0 

Attempts have been made from the analyses of 
the ash to reconstitute the composition of the min- 
eral matter as it exists in the milk. The best known 



162 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

is that of Soldner, and the following is his calcu- 
lation : 

Per Cent. 

Soduim Chloride 10.62 

Potassium Chloride 9.16 

Monopotassium Phosphate 12.77 

Dipotassium Phosphate 9.22 

Potassium Citrate 5.47 

Dimagnesium Citrate 3.71 

Magnesium Citrate 4.05 

Dicalcium Phosphate 7.42 

Tricalcium Phosphate 8.90 

Calcium Citrate 23.55 
Calcium Oxide in combination 

with Casein 5.13 

The ash is the least variable constituent of milk. 
Wing says: "It is composed chiefly of the phos- 
phates of lime and potash, the chlorides of potash 
and soda, with small amounts of phosphates of 
iron and magnesia. It seems probable that at least 
a part of the phosphate of lime is ordinarily in 
insoluble form, suspended in the milk in very fine 
particles in connection with the casein." Fleisch- 
mann has given the salts in milk as : 



Phosphoric Acid 


28.31 Per Cent. 


Chlorine 


16.34 " 


Lime 


27.00 " 


Potash 


17.34 " 


Soda 


10.00 " 


Magnesia 


4.07 " 


Ferric Oxide 


0.62 " 



The Chloride of Potash is largely in excess of 
the Chloride of Soda, which is directly opposite to 
the proportion of these two salts in the blood. The 



MILK 163 

salts of milk are commonly spoken of as the ash 
or mineral constituents. This conception is some- 
what misleading because the materials appearing 
in the ash are, to some considerable extent, com- 
bined in organic compounds, instead of existing in 
the milk as separate inorganic bodies. The min- 
eral constituents of milk have many important 
functions to perform in the building up and nutri- 
tion of the bodily organism. 

The Gases of Milk. 

Milk contains more or less oxygen, nitrogen and 
carbon dioxide in varying amounts. The oxygen 
and nitrogen are carried into the milk mechanically 
from the air in the process of milking. Carbon 
dioxide is present in the udder milk, there being 
probably 3 or 4 per cent, by volume, a portion of 
which escapes in the process of milking. 

The Food Value of Cow's Milk. 

From his own investigations and those of others, 
Rubner suggested the calorific value of the three 
prime classifications of food as follows: 

1 gram of Portein 4.1 Calories 

1 " " Fat 9.3 

1 " " Carbohydrates 4.1 

Atwater has more recently suggested a revision 
of these figures based on very exhaustive experi- 
ments in this country, his proposed fuel value for 
one gram of protein or carbohydrate being 4 calor- 
ies, and for one gram of fat, 8.9 calories. Rubner's 
figures being still generally used, let us use them 
in computing the food value of a milk containing 



164 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

3.6 per cent, of fat, 4.8 per cent, of milk sugar 
and 3.1 per cent, of nitrogenous matter: 

Fat 3.6 x 9.3=33.48 Calories per 100 grams. 

Milk sugar or 

Carbohydrates 4.8x4.1 = 19.68 " " " 

Nitrogenous Matter 

or Protein 3.1x4.1 = 12.71 " " " 



Total 65.87 

100 grams equal 3.53 oz. or 453 grams equal 
I pound; therefore 65.87 x 4.53 = 298.4 calories 
per pound. 

The following table has been taken from various 
published reports giving the composition and food 
value of liquid dairy products : 

COMPOSITION AND NOURISHMENT OF DAIRY 
PRODUCTS 



S as 1 ?! 1 55 § 



«0 £Q 



*2 L j* ^ u.P 



Dairy Products, Etc. £ & 2 & *£ S £ S « S s'aS 
J ^0h PhU. fed. UOh <Jfe feOPk 

Whole Milk 87.0 3.3 4.0 5.0 .7 325 

Skimmed Milk 90.5 3.4 .3 5.1 .7 170 

Cream 74.0 2.5 18.5 4.5 .5 910 

Buttermilk 91.0 3.0 .5 4.8 .7 165 

Condensed Milk 26.9 8.8 8.3 54.1 1.9 1,530 

Evaporated Cream 68.2 9.6 9.3 11.2 1.7 780 

Koumiss 89.3 2.8 2.1 5.4 .4 240 

Whey 93.0 1.0 .3 5.0 .7 125 

Cream. 

Cream is the oily and fatty part of the milk which 
rises to the surface when the milk stands unagi- 
tated and it is characterized by containing a higher 
percentage of fat than milk. Cream is separated 



MILK 165 

from milk, either naturally, due to the differences 
in the specific gravity of fat globules and milk- 
serum, or mechanically by centrifugal separators, 
to be consumed as food or used in the manufacture 
of butter. The separation of cream from milk is 
always accompanied with some loss of fat. Wing 
says that "Cream of good quality should contain 
from 18 to 25 per cent, of fat, and very rich cream 
contains from 35 to 40 per cent, of fat." Snyder 
gives the composition of good average cream as : 



Water 


66.41 Per Cent. 


Solids 


33.59 " 


Fat 


25.72 " 


Casein and Albumen 


3.70 " 


Milk sugar 


3.54 " 


Ash 


0.63 " 


. _ _ 


■ 1*1 T 



Cream is spoken of as thick, medium or thin, 
according to its fat content; thin cream contains 
10 to 20 per cent., medium 20 to 30, thick 30 to 40 
and very thick over 40 per cent.; very thin cream 
may contain as low as 8 per cent, of fat. Locke 
has prepared some figures giving the relative food 
value of various grades of cream: 



Per- 




Calories 


Calories 


Nature Weight centage 




Carbo- 


per 


of Cream grams of Water 


Protein 


Fat hydrates Total 


100 grams 


Average 20 66.4 


3.0 


47.8 2.9 54 


269 


Heavy 20 58.3 


1.8 


67.4 2.4 72 


358 


Thick 20 39.3 


1.3 


104.3 1.9 108 


540 


Whipped 30 59.7 


4.6 


71.8 4.3 81 


269 



Cream is adulterated by the addition of milk, 
coloring matter, preservatives, such as formalin, 
boric acid and salicylic acid, and foreign matter, 
such as viscogin added to give a higher viscosity. 
Cream of low fat content is a very frequently prac- 
ticed form of fraud. 



166 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Condensed Milk. 

Many attempts have been made in the past to con- 
vert milk into some form in which it will keep for 
long periods of time without undergoing decomposi- 
tion, and these attempts have all taken the form of 
preparing milk in a condensed or concentrated 
form. At first attempts were made to "preserve" or 
condense milk by evaporating milk to dryness, and 
the solids left behind were mixed with a small 
quantity of soda and pressed into cakes. These 
milk cakes did not prove satisfactory, however, for 
they did not keep well; the fat became rancid and 
the cakes would not dissolve properly in water, 
due to the drying process having destroyed the 
colloidal condition of the casein matter. It was 
later found that evaporating the milk to one-half 
or one-third of its original volume, produced a 
condensed milk which would keep fairly well, and 
that the addition of sugar to such evaporated milk 
still further increased its keeping properties. The 
composition of condensed milk is determined by 
the character of the fresh milk. If the fresh milk, 
for instance, contains a large percentage of fat, 
the condensed product will show a predominance 
of that constituent. Condensed milk has been made 
of whole milk, natural and sweetened, and skim 
milk, sweetened and unsweetened, but the last 
form does not appear to be on the market at 
present. 

Sohn gives the composition of British commercial 
condensed milk as follows: 



MILK 167 





Whole Milk 


Whole Milk 


Skimmed Milk 




Sweetened 


Unsweetened 


Sweetened 




Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Cane sugar 


30 to 57 


none 


30 to 55 


Milk sugar 


13 to 17 


16 to 18 


12 to 18 


Fat 


10 to 13 


9.5 to 12.5 


0.2 to 1.3 


Protein (Albumen 






and Casein) 8 to 12 


8 to 14.5 


7.5 to 12.5 



Huebner gives the following analyses of sweet- 
ened and unsweetened condensed milk: 











Milk 


Cane 






Water 


Fat 


Portein 


Sugar 


Sugar 


Ash 


Sweetened 














Norwegian 


28.85 


9.21 


8.98 


14.14 


36.74 


2.08 


Nestles' Swiss 


15.30 


8.85 


9.98 


13.62 


50.08 


2.17 


Unsweetened 














American (mean 














of 10 varieties) 


45.59 


15.67 


17.81 


15.40 




2.53 



The Borden original patent granted in 1856 was 
on a process "for concentrating sweet milk by- 
evaporation in vacuo, having no sugar or other for- 
eign matter mixed with it." To-day sweetened 
condensed milk is more generally used and it 
reaches the retail market in hermetically sealed 
cans. It is made from fresh cow's milk heated to 
near the boiling point and sucrose (cane sugar) 
added. The milk and sugar solution is then con- 
densed in vacuo at a temperature of 130° to 
150° F. The ratio of concentration is about 2.5 
to 1, and the finished product contains about 40 
per cent, of cane sugar, is of semi-liquid consist- 
ency and has a specific gravity of about 1.29. 
Sweetened condensed milk is not effectively steril- 
ized, although it is much freer from bacteria than 
ordinary milk. No tubercle bacilli have been found 



168 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

in it and "it is almost invariably free from patho- 
genic germs in general." Sweetened condensed 
milk is well preserved by the cane sugar it contains ; 
it will keep for a considerable length of time, but is 
best when fresh and should be used promptly when 
the container can is opened. In undiluted con- 
densed milk, micro-organisms do not grow readily, 
but when water is added they multiply with extraor- 
dinary rapidity. 

Unsweetened condensed whole milk is generally 
termed "evaporated" milk. It is prepared in a some- 
what similar manner to sweetened condensed milk, 
with the exception that no cane sugar is added and 
the rate of concentration is made about 2^ to 1. 
The hermetically sealed cans of evaporated milk are 
sterilized at temperatures ranging from 225° to 
240° F. for from half an hour to one hour. From 
the sterilizer, the cans are transferred to a shaker, 
w T here they are subjected to violent agitation to 
break up the coagulum which may have formed 
during sterilization. The finished product has the 
consistency of cream of medium richness and has a 
specific gravity of about 1.065. Being sterile it 
will keep indefinitely, but like all other such prod- 
ucts, is best when fresh. What is known as "Plain 
Condensed Bulk Milk" is made from whole milk 
partly skimmed or from skimmed milk. The fresh 
milk is generally heated to about 160° F. and con- 
densed in vacuo at 125° to 150° F., the ratio of 
concentration being 3 or 4 to 1. Before leaving the 
vacuum pan, it is superheated by steam to swell 
or thicken it. It is usually sold in very large milk 
cans to large consumers, such as ice-cream manu- 
facturers, and only very limited quantities of it 
are retailed to domestic consumers. Such milk has 



MILK 169 

the consistency of very thick cream and a specific 
gravity of about 1.09. It is not sterile and its 
keeping properties are similar to those of a good 
grade of pasteurized milk. 

What is known in our country as "Concentrated 
milk" of the unsweetened condensed variety is only 
made to a very limited extent. It is produced from 
fresh skim milk condensed at 140° F. by blowing 
hot air through the milk. The ratio of concentra- 
tion is about 3 to 1. It is not sterile, has a low fat 
content, and keeps about as long as pasteurized 
milk. Prof. Conn believes that concentrated milk 
produced by a new patented process which with- 
draws much of the water from skim milk and subse- 
quently remixes the product with pasteurized cream 
in proper proportion, offers some exceptional ad- 
vantages. The product resembles cream and "when 
the proper amount of water is mixed with this 
concentrated milk in the proportion of 3 to 1, it is 
restored to its original condition so closely as to 
be almost indistinguishable from fresh milk. It 
tastes the same, it curdles with rennet, cream rises 
upon it in much the same way as on fresh milk 
and, so far as experimental tests have determined, 
its digestibility is not impaired. Its treatment at 
a temperature of 140° F. for two hours, destroys 
all disease germs. If kept at a temperature below 
50° F. it will not only keep sweet for 6 to 8 days, 
but at the end of that time the number of bacteria 
will be surprisingly few. During the first few days 
after its preparation, it is possible to transport such 
milk for long distances and yet place it on sale in 
a city in a better condition, at least so far as bac- 
teria are concerned, than most of the milk which 
now reaches the larger markets, and the expense 



170 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

of transportation is very much reduced." Prof. 
Conn feels that concentrated milk, properly made 
by this modern process, promises great aid in solving 
the milk problem of cities, since it offers at a low 
price milk that he affirms cannot be distinguished 
from ordinary milk, and yet can be guaranteed as 
free from pathogenic bacteria; and it will keep 
well. Concentrated milk with pasteurized cream 
added, and with well proportioned fat content, is, 
of course, a very different commodity from the 
usual concentrated milk made from skimmed milk, 
i. e., robbed of its fat. It must be comparable with 
and is essentially similar to pasteurized whole milk, 
its prime advantage being in the elimination of much 
water and the economic benefits that may ensue 
from such concentration of a food commodity. 

The success of every form of condensed milk 
depends primarily on the use by the manufacturer 
of a good quality of fresh milk, coupled, of course, 
with cleanliness and care in the manipulation of it. 
Wing says : "Milk that is abnormal in its properties 
when drawn, badly contaminated milk, and milk 
that has not been properly and promptly cooled on 
the farm, cannot be safely used in the condensery. 
Such milk either does not withstand the trials of the 
process or it succumbs to the many and unfavorable 
conditions to which it is subjected on its long jour- 
ney from the factory to the pantry of the consumer. 
Its original defects magnify with age and follow it 
to its destination.' ' Dr. Wiley has published the 
following analyses of four different brands of 
evaporated or unsweetened condensed milk, and two 
brands of sweetened condensed milk, to show the 
present typical composition of such products in the 
American market. 



MILK 171 

(A) EVAPORATED OR UNSWEETENED CONDENSED 





MILKS 






Constituents Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent 


Per Cent 


Water 72.03 


70.26 


72.17 


71.34 


Fat 8.42 


8.97 


8.09 


8.18 


Proteins 7.10 


7.83 


7.25 


7.29 


Ash 1.68 


1.44 


1.67 


1.59 


Milk Sugar 10.77 


10.85 


10.82 


10.83 


Undetermined 


0.65 




0.77 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


Total Solids 27.97 


29.74 


27.83 


28.66 


Fat in Solids 30.10 


30.09 


29.07 


28.58 


(B.) SWEETENED CONDENSED MILKS 


Constituents 


Per Cent. 




Per Cent. 


Water 


26.87 




24.90 


Fat 


9.82 




10.30 


Proteins 


8.04 




8.77 


Milk Sugar 


11.11 




11.18 


Cane Sugar 


42.22 




42.12 


Ash 


1.92 




1.85 


Undetermined 






0.88 




100.00 


100.00 


Total Solids 


73.13 




75.10 


Milk Solids 


30.91 




32.98 


Fat in Milk Solids 


31.77 




31.23 



The ratio of proteins to fat is from 1.12 to 1.18 
to 1 for unsweetened condensed milks and 1.17 to 
1.22 to 1 for sweetened condensed milks. The 
Federal standard for condensed and evaporated 
milks requires that such milk shall have 28 per cent, 
of milk solids (the above analyses show 27.83 to 
32.98 per cent.) of which not less than 27.5 per 
cent, is milk fat — the above analyses show 28.58 



172 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

to 31.77 per cent. Wiley says: "An important 
factor in regard to the purchasing of condensed 
milk is found in the fact that it does not always 
have a uniform density. The national standard for 
condensed milk requires that it shall contain not less 
than 28 per cent, of solid matter, while many of 
the milks found upon the market contain decidedly 
less than this amount. To the poor man especially 
who buys his condensed milk at a high price, it is 
of some importance to know whether he gets a 
sufficiently condensed article, or whether he is buy- 
ing a large amount of water." The same general 
statement applies to ordinary fresh milk, and prac- 
tically to all articles of food and commerce. The 
water content of almost every article purchased, 
except dense metals and kindred commodities, 
should be known, for water is cheap ; it is used very 
extensively and deliberately to deceive and at times 
it exists to confuse both the honest dealer and the 
intelligent consumer. Water is a necessary and 
valuable commodity, but to pay many cents and, at 
times, even dollars per pound for it (which has 
been done of late in the case of expensive chemi- 
cals) is not only extravagant but a reflection upon 
the economic judgment and good sense of a people. 
In sweetened condensed milk, the large amount 
of sugar present, detrimentally affects the value 
of the product as a well balanced wholesome food. 
For this reason, even if condensed milk is useful 
for certain purposes, it can never be widely substi- 
tuted for fresh milk in an ordinary diet. It has 
undoubtedly a place in our food products, but it 
cannot take the place of fresh milk for all or even 
the majority of purposes. Unsweetened condensed 
milk has the advantages and disadvantages of ster- 



MILK 173 

ilized milk, which we will discuss later, and while 
an article of value for some purposes, it adds little 
to the solution of our milk problem to-day. The 
preservation of sweetened condensed milk is due to 
its great sugar content, which prevents the growth 
of bacteria; but sugar will not prevent the growth 
of yeasts. H. W. Conn says: "While bacteria do 
not usually spoil condensed milk, it is sometimes 
found, to the misfortune of the manufacturer, that 
yeasts may ferment it. Immense losses have 
occurred in the condensed milk industry in the last 
few years by the growth of fermenting yeasts. 
Bacteria can usually be found in condensed milk 
also, but they do not develop. Hence, if yeasts do 
not produce trouble, the material keeps well for 
a long time. ,, 

Dr. Holt has advised the use of condensed milk 
for babies over three months old who, being de- 
prived of the breast, in spite of all variations made 
in fresh cow's milk, continue to have symptoms of 
indigestion and do not thrive. He believes that a 
good brand of condensed milk will be more apt to 
agree with the child for a limited period if it has 
experienced intestinal trouble, such as colic, flatu- 
lence, curds, constipation or diarrhoea, rather than 
gastric trouble, such as vomiting, regurgitation, 
etc. Holt advises dilution with boiled water or 
barley water 16 to 1, reducing to 8 to 1 for older 
children, and states: "In most cases it should be 
used as the sole food for a few weeks only," and 
adds: "Condensed milk is not to be recommended 
as a permanent food where good fresh cow's milk 
can be obtained." Holt also states that condensed 
milk prepared as a child's food is very low in fats 
and proteids and high in sugar. This accounts for 



174 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

its apparent ease of digestibility and also explains 
why children reared entirely upon it often gain 
very rapidly in weight, yet have, as a rule, but little 
resistance. Such children "are very prone to de- 
velop rickets and sometimes scurvy." Moreover, 
most of the proprietary infant foods, such as substi- 
tutes for milk, are open to the same objection. 
Pritchard maintains that fresh milk is the thing to 
be desired in all cases for infants, and the more 
milk is manipulated the more it loses some subtle 
virtue, such loss being due primarily to the destruc- 
tion of certain proteolytic and fat splitting fer- 
ments. He does not attach any value whatever to 
dried or condensed milk as a food for babies, and 
if the fat in the milk has been reduced, he advises 
the use of cod liver oil emulsion or pure olive oil. 
Condensed milk to be good should be made from 
healthy cows, the product of sanitary dairies, and 
if it is to be used for the food of infants, it should 
be produced from a certified fresh milk. Wiley 
has said that while it is idle to claim that even the 
best possible condensed milk is as good for a child 
as pure fresh milk, yet he feels that such a product 
would be preferable to the indiscriminate milk 
supplies of many of our cities. "In fact, for con- 
gested centers where it is difficult to secure fresh 
milk, I think no one would doubt that a properly 
manufactured condensed milk would be a most 
helpful substitute. It could be more easily trans- 
ported and delivered to congested centers than 
could fresh milk. If possible, perfectly fresh milk 
should always be secured, but such possibilities do 
not offer themselves to the poorer residents of large 
and densely populated cities, and hence it seems to 
me that a properly certified and sterilized con- 



MILK 175 

densed milk would prove a blessing under such cir- 
cumstances." 

Evaporated Cream 

This product consists of milk with a varying 
amount of cream evaporated to less than half its 
bulk and sterilized by heat; it is sealed in cans and 
should keep almost indefinitely. Like unsweetened 
condensed milk, it has the advantages and disad- 
vantages of sterilized milk, and while it may have its 
place among food products, it cannot replace raw 
milk as an article of food. 

Milk Powder 

Several processes for completely removing the 
water from milk have been devised and put in more 
or less successful operation. When milk is reduced 
to a powder, it is capable of being kept a relatively 
long time. When the milk used contains the natural 
cream, the powder produced will gradually become 
rancid, but powdered skim milk can be kept without 
much trouble, and it is used by confectioners, bakers, 
manufacturers of chocolate, custards, etc. For pur- 
poses of transportation, the milk powder, or dried 
milk, has advantages over all other forms of milk. 
Sohn gives the following data of the composition of 
dried or powdered whole milk and skimmed milk : 





Dried Whole Milk 


Dried Skimmed Milk 


Water 


4 to 6 per cent. 


4 to 6 per cent. 


Fat 


25 to 30 " " 


ltol% " " 


Protein 


24 to 26 " " 


32 to 35 " " 


Milk Sugar 


30 to 35 " " 


45 to 50 " " 


Mineral Salts 


5 to 6 " " 


7 to 8 " " 



Sohn says that the milk powder made from whole 
milk should be diluted with 6% parts of water and 



176 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

the skimmed milk powder with 10 parts of water, 
and whereas the former could be used as an infant 
food in place of condensed milk, the latter should 
never be used for such purposes. This is self-evi- 
dent, because of the low fat content of dried 
skimmed milk. It is a difficult matter to rob milk of 
all its moisture in such a way that no part of the 
soluble substance in the milk becomes coagulated in 
drying and so that when water is added, the milk 
solids will resume their original physical state and 
restore the milk to a homogeneous fluid with all its 
original properties and taste. 

Frozen Milk 

Hittcher tells us that a method of meeting the 
milk problem by freezing the milk into cakes and 
pressing it in forms of bricks has been adopted in 
some localities in Europe. The difficulty of its suc- 
cess has been in part that the freezing changes some- 
what the character of the milk and experience to 
date does not suggest that this process is sufficiently 
meritorious to warrant extensive adoption. 

The Bacteriology of Milk 

Bacteria were known to the Dutch Microscopist 
Leeuwenhoek in the seventeenth century. About 
seventy-five years ago it was suggested that the 
presence and activity of micro-organisms influenced 
or produced certain unusual phenomena. Pasteur, 
twenty years later, showed a close connection be- 
tween microscopic life and the souring of milk ; and 
during the past three decades, the importance of 
bacteriology in relation to milk has become so great 
that it has revolutionized all dairy methods "from 
the cow to the consumer's table." The knowledge 



MILK 177 

gained has proved to be of economic benefit to the 
dairyman, but above all it has helped the consumer 
by the creation of hygienic and sanitary conditions 
which naturally tend to safeguard the health and 
lives of the great consuming public. It is said that 
the presence of bacteria is well-nigh universal, exist- 
ing in the air, soil and water, but it should also be 
noted that in uninhabited spaces their number is 
enormously less than in inhabited spaces ; that under 
certain circumstances air may be, if not absolutely, 
yet relatively free of them; that above the sea far 
from land and on the mountain tops, the air is gen- 
erally pure and practically sterile and that the pro- 
pensity of such micro-organisms, microbes, bacilli 
or bacteria is to obey the law of gravity and to sub- 
side from the air, a tendency which can only be 
completely realized when the air is kept absolutely 
undisturbed — an almost impossible condition. It 
has been said that bacteria are present in the air 
above the streets of Paris to the extent of 4000 per 
cubic meter; this is equivalent to 1 bacterium per 15 
cubic inches. A British investigator has found two 
bacteria per cubic inch in the air of a cow barn or 
thirty times as many as exist immediately over the 
thoroughfares of a large city. Bacteria are very 
abundant in the litter, manure and dirt on the floor 
of cow stalls and whenever such matter is stirred or 
disturbed, large numbers of micro-organisms are 
sent into the air. It is for this reason as well as the 
condition of the cow, attendants, milkers and milk 
vessels and the purity of the water used for clean- 
ing the pails, etc., that milk is so liable to be con- 
taminated with bacterial life. Milk as formed in a 
healthy cow's udder is sterile, but no matter what 
elaborate precautions are taken, the many attempts 



178 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

to obtain sterile milk in a milk pail have failed and 
we are compelled in recognize as inevitable the pres- 
ence of certain bacteria in milk. 
Size, Form and Multiplication of Bacteria 

The most striking fact about bacteria is their 
minuteness. Conn says, "When we hear of 100,- 
000,000 in a single drop of milk we are apt to be 
incredulous. A space the size of a pin head may 
hold 8,000,000 and 100,000,000 will have plenty of 
room in a drop of milk. The only way we can deal 
with them is to handle masses. The unit with which 
the student works is not a bacterium, but a colony 
composed of thousands of bacteria all of which are 
supposed to have risen from a single bacterium by 
multiplication. ' ' 

Bacteria are extremely minute bodies, the 
smallest known living things, and each consists of a 
single cell filled with protoplasm. They are of 
three general forms : 

1. Spherical — coccus 

2. Rod or cylindrical — bacillus 

3. Spiral, curved or wavy — spirillum 

The latter type is very rare in milk. Some 
bacteria are motile, being capable of an active swim- 
ming, spinning or spiral motion while others are 
stationary. They reproduce generally by fission 
and multiply with almost inconceivable rapidity; 
but some produce spores and this type does not 
multiply, as one individual simply produces another 
of its kind and dies in the process. The majority 
of the species of bacteria (and there are thousands 
of them), elongate somewhat in the direction of 
their longer axis, a partition forms across the cell 
transversely and two individuals exist where there 
was but one. Each new bacterium then elongates 



MILK 179 

and breaks and thus by continued division the num- 
bers increase. As such bacteria multiply in geo- 
metric progression and as a single germ may divide, 
under favorable conditions of food, temperature 
and environment, once every half hour, it is ap- 
parent that one bacterium would increase to 281,- 
474,976,710,656 within 24 hours if the favorable 
conditions continued. This means that if there were 
no interruptions and no deaths, one bacterium in a 
large can of milk might multiply in 24 hours so that 
each one cubic centimeter of milk would contain 
over 7,438,000,000 bacteria. It must, of course, be 
readily recognized that bacteria do not long con- 
tinue to multiply at this rate, for if they did, in a few 
days there would be no room in the world for any- 
thing else but bacteria. As Prof. Conn says, "Their 
multiplication is constantly being checked by ad- 
verse conditions — lack of food, lack of moisture, etc. 
— and thus they do not on the whole very materially 
increase in numbers. But this inconceivable power 
of multiplication they do possess and whenever they 
are placed for a few hours under conditions where 
they can have plenty of food and moisture for 
growth, they will develop with enormous rapidity, 
thus producing most profound changes in the sub- 
stance upon which they are feeding." 

Milk is a food drink, a liquid laden with nourish- 
ment and it is therefore an ideal breeding ground 
for almost any form of micro-organism that finds 
its way into it. If milk were a transparent fluid, 
the enormous growth of bacteria found in old 
market milk would be painly visible to the eye, and 
if a similar growth occurred in clear drinks and 
substances, we would regard them as unfit for use 
on account of the visible evidences of fermentation 



180 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

and putrefactive changes. Bacteria affect most 
profoundly the physical and chemical nature of 
milk and Dairy Bacteriology has done much, by the 
scientific study of these phenomena, to safeguard 
health and also on the economic side of the subject, 
to benefit the industry by showing how reliable and 
satisfactory products can be obtained. 

Ordinary bacteria readily succumb to moderate 
heat, a temperature of 160° F. being sufficient to 
kill almost all of them. There is, however, as before 
mentioned, a type of micro-organism that does not 
divide and multiply but produces a spore or oval 
body in its centre and dies as the new form takes 
life — a mere form of substitution. These spores, 
however, are covered with a hard case which enables 
them to resist the extreme conditions in which the 
more active and multiplying forms of bacteria 
cannot live. Spores can be dried for months and 
still retain their vitality. As spore-producing 
bacteria are not prolific, nature apparently has 
made it extremely difficult for the spores to be de- 
stroyed. They will stand very much more abuse 
than the mature bacteria and some of the spores 
can be kept in a fluid at boiling temperature for 
long periods of time, without having their vitality 
destroyed, and if the medium is subsequently cooled, 
the spores are capable of generating and develop- 
ing into bacteria. Pictet found that the spores of 
certain bacteria were able to survive in frozen 
oxygen at a temperature of — 353° F., while a few 
resisted a dry heat at 302° F. Milk contains many 
kinds of bacteria. If it is heated to about 140° to 
160° F. for a certain period of time, the vast ma- 
jority of the bacteria will be destroyed, but the few 
spores that may chance to be in the milk will not be 



MILK 181 

killed and may subsequently develop. Milk con- 
taining spore-producing bacteria cannot be steri- 
lized by boiling and as it practically always does 
contain them, though to a limited extent, boiling is 
not sufficient to sterilize milk. 

Micro-organisms of the yeast family, which mul- 
tiply by budding and separation, are also found in 
milk. Bacteria cause decay, putrefaction and lactic 
acid fermentation, but yeasts are more commonly 
associated with the alcoholic fermentation and 
operate on the sugars. 

Effect of Environment on Bacteria 

Nearly all forms of bacteria are sensitive to con- 
ditions of temperature. The range of temperatures 
in which they thrive best is rather narrow, but 
there is considerable range above or below, in 
which they will still grow and develop. For each 
type of micro-organism there is a minimum temper- 
ature, the lowest at which they will all grow; an 
optimum temperature at which they will all de- 
velop and propagate most rapidly, and a fatal 
temperature which will kill them. The range be- 
tween the minimum and the fatal temperatures 
traverses from the impotent, dormant and in- 
hibitory conditions, at a comparatively low tempera- 
ture, up with increasing fertility and development to 
the maximum point of prolification — the optimum 
temperature — and continuing upward, virility and 
reproduction or multiplication gradually wane 
until the temperature is reached which kills the 
organism. We are told that some species will grow, 
though slowly, at temperatures just above freezing; 
others require about body heat and still others seem 
to demand temperatures as high as 125° F. Gen- 



182 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

erally speaking, it does not appear that bacteria as 
found in milk develop much below 4*0° F. or over 
125° F. and by cooling milk to 40° or 45° F. bacterial 
development is generally effectively suspended. 
Some bacteria experience their peculiar favorable 
optimum temperature at 60°, others at 130°, but by 
far the larger number of bacteria find their optimum 
point between 70° and 100° F., a fact which ex- 
plains the rapidity of the souring of milk in hot 
weather and the quickness with which any organic 
matter decays during the summer. 

The following illustration will show the effect of 
temperature upon bacterial numbers. Conn says 
that a sample of milk was examined for bacteria 
when fresh and was found to contain 6,525 per c.c. 
It was then divided into two parts, one preserved at 
50° F. and the other at 70° F. After 25 hours the 
sample that had been maintained at 50° F. showed 
6,425 bacteria per c.c, or the same as when first 
tested, but the second sample that had been sub- 
jected to an increased temperature of only 20° F. 
showed a bacterial content of 6,275,000, or almost a 
thousand times as much. A sample of milk kept 
four days in a cold keeping box, showed only 10,000 
bacteria per c.c, but the same milk taken from the 
cold room and left in the kitchen for six hours, 
showed 1,000,000 or an increase of 100 fold. Miquel 
found that milk after being kept 15 hours at a 
temperature of 59° F. had 100,000 bacteria per c.c. 
after 15 hours at 77° F. (an increase of 18° F.) 
the bacterial content per c.c was 72,000,000. The 
table below by Conn gives the numbers of bacteria 
per c.c in milk kept at different temperatures ; the 
result of the increase in bacteria being primarily the 
production of lactic acid evidenced by souring. 



MILK 



183 



Number at In 12 Hours 


In 12 Hours 


In 50 Hours 


Test Outset at50°F. 


at 70° F. 


at 50° F. 


A 46,000 39,000 


249,500 


1,500,000 


B 47,000 44,800 


360,000 


127,500 


C 50,000 35,000 


800,000 


160,000 


T In 50 Hours or at 
^ ,. Time of Curdling 
C ° ntd at70°F. 


No. of Hours 


No. of Hours 


to Curdle 


to Curdle 


at 50° F. 


at 70° F. 


A 542,000,000 


190 


56 


B 792,000,000 in 36 Hours 


289 


36 


C 2,560,000,000 in 42 Hours 


172 


42 



Above 100° F. we are told that most bacteria are 
injured and as the temperature increases, more and 
more bacteria succumb to the fatal temperature, al- 
though the spores survive, together with some very 
few bacteria that have an optimum temperature of 
140° or higher. In ordinary milk practically all the 
active bacteria are killed, if subjected to a tempera- 
ture of about 145° F. for 20 minutes, therefore such 
a temperature should be the one adopted for 
"pasteurizing." A total destruction of bacteria in 
milk and its absolute sterilization is^ an extremely 
difficult matter and could possibly best be accom- 
plished by several heatings to a high temperature 
sufficient to destroy adult germ life, with alternate 
coolings, thus giving the almost indestructible spores 
an opportunity to mature at the lower temperature 
in order to kill them as mature organisms at the 
higher temperature before new spores are created. 
Such intermittent sterilization would be a trouble- 
some system to adopt for general use and it is 
fortunate that pathogenic germs are comparatively 
easily killed. Heat will destroy all bacteria, i. e., 
there is a fatal temperature for every species of 
bacteria, but cold will not exterminate them. Some 



184 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

may be killed by freezing but no matter how low the 
temperature, some seem to survive and many micro- 
organisms are totally resistant to cold. 

Many types of bacteria grow only in the pres- 
ence of air (aerobic), other types grow only in the 
absence of oxygen (anaerobic), and there are still 
others that will grow with or without oxygen 
(facultative anaerobic) ; the common lactic acid bac- 
terium, well known as the medium responsible for 
the souring of milk, belongs to this latter class. Bac- 
teria, like higher organisms, have their preference in 
regard to food, although they feed upon a greater 
variety of substances than possibly any other organ- 
isms. Like all other forms of life, they must have 
nutriment in order to grow and develop, and for 
their sustenance, they generally require carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, together with small 
amounts of mineral matter. Bacteria feed with 
great readiness upon protein foods and only rarely 
upon carbohydrates, although the lactic acid bac- 
terium acts upon milk sugar and causes the milk to 
sour. Of all the media for the abode and develop- 
ment of bacteria, milk is the best and hence as Aik- 
man says, "it has become the happy hunting ground 
for so many of them." Conn says, "In the case of 
most bacteria, the organisms are unable to feed 
upon the material while it is alive but after is it dead 
they feed upon it readily and cause it to putrefy." 
Bacteria feeding upon living animals and plants 
are called parasites; those feeding upon dead 
animals and plants, saprophytes. By far the larger 
number of bacteria perform a very useful and bene- 
ficial service by transforming dead organic matter 
into its original condition, thus acting as nature's 
ordained scavengers. Bacteria need moisture for 



MILK 185 

their general growth. They flourish most when 
there is 90 to 100 per cent, of water, and as ma- 
terials dry, bacteria generally cease to grow or 
thrive in them. This explains why certain dried 
foods will keep indefinitely. Drying, however, will 
not absolutely kill bacteria, for they may remain 
alive in such an environment for days, months and 
even years; they do not multiply, however; the 
weaker ones die, but when restored to water and a 
favorable temperature the survivors resume life and 
some again become prolific. 

Relation of Milk Bacteria to the Human System 

Fortunately we know that the mere presence of 
bacteria in milk is not alarming and we also know 
that disease is due to agencies and conditions other 
than merely the presence of large numbers of bac- 
teria. By universal consent, milk containing ex- 
cessive numbers of bacteria is branded as posi- 
tively unfit for infant feeding. Children are very 
susceptible to bacteria and their products and a 
very large proportion of the summer complaints of 
children can be attributed to the use of bacteria- 
laden milk. As a person grows older the body de- 
velops greater powers of resistance or apparent, 
comparative immunity, but we should also remem- 
ber that usually a person drinks less milk in ma- 
turity than in childhood. The bacterial content of 
so-called fresh milk is an index of its age, cleanliness 
and the care it has received in handling. A knowl- 
edge of the number of bacteria in milk, of itself, is 
not so important from a health standpoint, as the 
kind and nature of bacterial products; but with 
cleanliness, hygienic surroundings and refrigeration 
the total number of bacteria can be kept low, thus 



186 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

affording a mode of protection against the danger- 
ous species and their toxic products. Milk with an 
extremely low bacterial content, will contain but 
few, if any, harmful ones. Milk with an unusually 
high bacterial content is a "danger flag" of health, 
for it is apt to suggest dirt and foulness obtained 
under poor sanitary dairy conditions and then reck- 
lessly subjected to a temperature, in storage or 
transit, conducive to the growth of most of the forms 
of bacteria which have entered the milk, due to pre- 
vailing conditions of ignorance or indifference. This 
sort of a mental attitude on the part of any dairy- 
man or farmer suggests apathy or carelessness with 
regard to purity of water supply, personal cleanli- 
ness, health of operatives assigned to milking, 
physical condition of cows, protection from in- 
fectious diseases and possibility of spreading infec- 
tion through the fertile medium of milk. 

Tuberculosis 

There are no harmful germs found in milk from 
healthy cows, but sick or diseased cows may at times 
transmit disease through their milk, although 
fortunately most diseases that attack cows do not 
usually affect man. The cow, classified as a 
domestic animal, is living an unnatural life and 
nature demands the penalty. Cows are particularly 
prone to tuberculosis just as the barbarian and so- 
called uncivilized branches of the human race suc- 
cumb to its ravages when an indoor, congested and 
artificial mode of life, classed as civilized, is sub- 
stituted for the natural life of the free and the open. 
It is said that in certain parts of Denmark and Ger- 
many forty to fifty per cent, of the cattle are tuber- 
cular; in cold climates where the cattle are kept 



MILK 187 

housed most of the time, the disease is more preva- 
lent than in warm countries where they can live a 
more natural outdoor life. Dr. Mohler reported in 
1907 that of 1,147 recently tested cows supplying 
milk to the city of Washington, D. C, 214 or 18.6 
per cent, were tubercular. He stated that he did 
not consider this a fair estimate of the extent of 
tuberculosis in the dairy herds supplying Wash- 
ington with milk, for the tests were only applied to 
those herds which had recently been cleansed by 
private tests or appeared so healthy that their 
owners had no fear of having them tested. 

The following table prepared by Salmon of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry, showing the results of 
the tuberculin test of cattle in some States, is of 
value as it clearly shows the wide distribution of 
bovine tuberculosis. As many of these herds tested 
were suspected herds, it is possible that some of 
these particular results are as much above a true 
general average of tubercular cattle, as the Wash- 
ington tests were below: 







Number 


Number 


Per Cent. 


State 




tested 


tuberculous 


tuberculous 


Massachusetts 




24,685 


12,443 


50.0 


Connecticut 




6,300 




14.2 


New York, 1897-98 


1,200 


163 


18.4 


Pennsylvania 




34,000 


4,800 


14.1 


New Jersey 




2,500 




21.4 


Illinois, 1899 




3,655 


560 


15.3 


Michigan 








13.0 


Iowa 




873 


122 


13.8 


Wisconsin : 










Experiment : 


station tests — 






Suspected 


herds 


323 


115 


35.6 


State veterinarian's 


tests — 






Suspected 


herds 


588 


191 


32.5 



Typhoid Epidemic 

Elkton, Md. 
Oct. 1900. Population 2,542 
all of which, i.e., 100 per cent, obtained Milk from a certain 
39 ^tjie 4 available sources of supply. Typhoid on the farm, with 
° ne °on milking and the Mother handling the milk — both when ailing, 

Tused the infection of the milk^ 

. ■ Relation of Milk Routes to Typhoid Fever Cases at Elkton, Md., 1900 



E El 



m 



m 



k 



Kaeh dot represents a case of typhoid fever. 

A— Farm where original case occurred in September and was nursed by wife 
of farmer B. 

B— Dairy farm where wife nursed preceding case and prepared the milk for 
market. She and one son were ailing for some days but did not stop work until 
October 8. 

The dash-lines represent the course and distribution of the milk from farm B. 
All the cases of typhoid were on this milk route. 

C and D were farms selling milk to farmer B. No typhoid occurred on these 2 

E— Farm receiving a small amount of milk daily from B for use of girl staying 
at tarm. This girl contracted typhoid. 

F. G, and H— The 3 other dairy farms supplying milk to Elkton. The solid 
lines represent their routes. No case of typhoid on these routes. 
The large square— "TOWN"— represents the town of Elkton. 



Fig. 14 

Scarlet Fever Epidemic 

Norwalk, Conn. 

Nov., 1897 

29 cases reported, 27 of which or 93.1 per cent received their Milk 

from one dealer who in turn purchased from 3 sources. At one of the 

farms a case of scarlet fever was discovered which infected the Milk. 



Showing relation of Milk Routes to Scarlet Fever cases during outbreak 
at Norwalk, Conn., 1S97 



[F| m 




A, B, and K are dairy farms selling their product to retail milk 
dealer H. K is the farm on which a case of scarlet fever occurred 
antedating the outbreak in Norwalk. 

The large square TOWN represents the city of Norwalk. 

H is the retail milk dealer among whose customers all cases but two 
occurred. The dash lines represent H's milk route, and each dot is a 
case of scarlet fever. 

C, D, E, F, G, I, and J are other dairymen having routes in Nor- 
walk. The lines extending from them into the city represent their 
milk routes and are introduced to show their freedom from the disease 



Outbreak of Diphtheria 

In Dorchester, Milton and Hyde Park, Mass. 
April 11-19, 1907 
72 cases reported, 69 of which or 95.8 per cent received their milk from 
the same source. It was found that on the farm a child had been seized 
with the disease on April 1 1 and that the cooler in which the milk was 
mixed was washed in the farm house by the attendant of the sick child. 



Showing relation of milk routes to Diphtheria cases during the outbreak 
at Dorchester, Milton, and Hyde Park, 1907 




r^rr.-fl 







— H 



"Ek 



N 



Hyde Parh 



--0 



W^-v*-i] 



J H, R B N, E T T, O H, J M B, and C F J are the farmers producing milk. 

A is the milk dealer delivering milk in both Milton and Dorchester. B is the 
milk dealer delivering milk in Hyde Park. 

The lines connecting the producing farms and the milk dealers show to which 
dairy the farmer sold his milk. 

The large squares represent Milton, Dorchester, and Hyde Park. 

The dash-lines extending from A to B into the towns represent the milk routes 
carrying the supposedly infectious milk. 

Each dot represents a case of diphtheria and is placed on the milk route from 
which it was supplied. 

C, D, E, F, G, and H represent the other dairies selling milk : The lines ex- 
tending from them into the towns represent their routes and r ! 
their freedom from diphtheria cases. 



inserted to show 



188 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Hess found that of 107 average samples of raw 
milk obtained in New York, 17 contained tubercle 
bacilli. 

Tuberculosis is one of the most serious prob- 
lems that the dairyman has to face and threatens 
to undermine the whole industry. The bacterium 
that produces this disease in cattle and in man 
is practically the same; it is now generally agreed 
that the differences between bovine and human 
tuberculosis are slight and that either may be a 
source of danger to mankind. Behring is of the 
opinion that the larger part of pulmonary consump- 
tion is contracted in childhood from drinking milk, 
but that it takes years to develop and therefore 
generally shows later in life. Koch, on the other 
hand, holds that the danger of contracting tuber- 
culosis from the milk of diseased cows is compara- 
tively slight. Koch must be the nearer right. There 
is direct evidence that tubercular cows give milk 
containing tuberculosis bacilli; these germs do not 
multiply in milk but develop only within the body 
at body heat. The human body has good resisting 
powers against them when taken into the stomach 
in small numbers ; were it not so, the disease would 
destroy our vaunted civilization, for tests have 
shown that 30 per cent, of the milk put into a large 
modern European city contained tubercle bacilli, 
and it is not likely that some of our own markets 
are much better. There is, however, a pronounced 
danger in the steady use, and for children even oc- 
casional use, of tubercular milk, no matter how 
much the milk of the diseased cow may have been 
mixed or diluted with the milk of healthy cows. No 
animal suffering with /any disease of any kind, 
whether it be tuberculosis, foot and mouth disease, 
splenic fever, lock-jaw, hydrophobia, etc., should 
be allowed to furnish milk for public consumption. 



MILK 189 

Typhoid — Scarlet Fever — Diphtheria 

After the milk is drawn from the cow there are 
several kinds of disease germs that may and do 
sometimes find their way into it and become a source 
of danger to the consumer. The most important 
of these is the typhoid fever germ. Schuder in 1901 
collected records of 650 typhoid epidemics. Of this 
number 462 or 71 per cent, were attributed to water 
and 110 or 17 per cent, were traced to infected 
milk. Harrington, in 1907, referring to the fact 
that in Massachusetts they have good and well 
guarded water supplies adds "During the past two 
years, of 18 local outbreaks of typhoid fever in dif- 
ferent parts of the state, investigated under my 
direction, 14 were traced to milk.'' Jensen said, 
"The principal means by which typhoid fever is 
distributed in places where there is a safe and 
hygienic water supply, is through milk," and later 
statistics have well substantiated this fact. A 
typhoid fever epidemic due to infected milk is sharp 
and violent and relatively short, in this respect dif- 
fering from an epidemic caused by a contaminated 
water supply. Typhoid bacteria multiply rapidly 
in milk, which is well adapted to their nature and in 
a few hours they may become indefinitely numerous. 
Whenever typhoid germs are present in milk they 
are apt to be very abundant, and thus the per- 
centage of people affected from drinking infected 
milk, is generally far greater than that of people 
drinking water contaminated with typhoid; and 
when a typhoid epidemic from milk infection does 
occur, the attack is explosive, severe and sudden. 

Bruck in 1903 took ordinary market milk and in- 
fected it with the typhoid bacillus. He then ran the 
milk thus treated through a separator and found the 



Fig. 15. 

Typhoid Epidemic— Stamford, Conn. 

April 15 to May 28, 1895 

Of 386 cases, 376 or 97.1% were traced to the use of contaminated milk from one source. The trouble originated in a shallow, 
unprotected, uncemented surface well 13# feet deep in poorly drained soil with water grossly polluted within one foot nine inches of the 
surface. There was a shallow foul privy 25 feet west of the well on slightly higher ground and another 40 feet to the east. The milk 
cans were rinsed in this water. 



Showing relation of milk routes to typhoid fever cases during the epi- 
demic at Stamford, Conn., 1895. 




GD B 



Showing Number of Cases of Typhoid Fever reported each day during the Stamford outbreak 
APRIL MAY 

14 15 16 IV 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 2S 29 30 I 2. 3 * 5 b 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 1* 15 lb 17 IB 19 20 21 




Shows Date on which the implicated dairy was closed. Note that after -fifteen days the Epidemic 

at an end. 



i practically 



EXPLANATION OF DIAGRAM 

The large square MNOP on the left represents the 
town of Stamford. 

B is the dairy distributing the implicated milk, and 
the dash lines running from B into the city represent 
the milk route of this dairy. Each of the dots repre- 
sents one case of typhoid fever and is .placed upon 
the route of the dairy from which it was supplied 
with milk. There are 368 such cases on B's route, 
including the twelve around the S, which is meant 
to represent the cafe supplied by B. B supplied 
about one-eleventh of the milk used in the town. 

HH and H are distributing dairies similar to B. 

CH and EBL are producing farms selling milk to 
B and also peddling some themselves. The dash line 
extending from EBL represents his personal route of 
5 houses in whic.i 8 cases of typhoid occurred. 



in ten-year periods the ages of cases during the 

Stamford outbreak 



JHB and JBH are produc 
and also to distributing d 



lg farn 



H 



Dash lin 
tive agent. 



the dairy to which the pro- 
3 milk. 

show the apparent course of the infec- 
otuer dairies having routes 




Note the unusual number of cases under 10 years of age 
as compared with those between 20 and 30 years, the period 

usually most susceptible to typhoid. 



MILK 191 

Diphtheria 



Typhoid 


Scarlet 




Fever 


Fever 


Caused by use of polluted water 






for diluting milk 


13 




Cows- drinking or wading in 






sewage-polluted water 


6 




Dairy employees also tending 






sick — handling milk and act- 






ing as nurses 


21 


8 


Milk handlers ill with disease 






while at work 


6 


2 


Disease among milch cows 




20 



11 

Attached are most interesting graphic charts 
(Figs. 14-15) which tell the story of certain typical 
epidemics which are positively proven to have been 
caused by infected milk. We are indebted to State 
and Federal Officials for the compiling and plotting 
of these most excellent diagrams. It is interesting 
to note the percentage of total actual cases which 
were traceable to one source of polluted milk in the 
various commodities affected: 







Cases 


Percentage 
of total cases 




Total 


traceable to a 


traceable to 




number 


certain milk 


certain milk 


Place 
Stamford, Conn. 
Norwalk, Conn. 


Epidemic of cases 
Typhoid 386 
Scarlet Fever 29 


supply 

376 

29 


supply 
97.1 
93.1 


Dorchester, ) 
Milton, C Mass 


• Diphtheria 72 


69 


95.8 


Hyde Park, ) 
Elkton, Md. 


Typhoid 39 


39 


100. 



The Stamford charts show the progress of the 
typhoid epidemic and how it stopped with the clos- 
ing of the implicated dairy, also how the young were 
affected far more than the old. This is one of the 
particularly great evils of any milk pollution, for 
the young milk drinkers — infants and children — 
suffer the most, whereas with water-typhoid, the 
adults in their prime seem to succumb far more 
readily, due most probably to habits of life. 



192 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The number of bacteria in milk has no relation 
whatever with the possibility or probability of in- 
fection from the tubercle, typhoid or diphtheria 
bacilli, or from that unknown something which 
causes scarlet fever. Milk containing 200,000,000 
bacteria per c.c. is no more likely to contain any of 
the before mentioned disease germs than milk con- 
taining only 10,000, except, however, that the higher 
bacterial counts are suggestive of filthy and care- 
less production; and as we have before said, large 
counts are a danger signal and should be so con- 
sidered by health officers and consumers. It is to be 
regretted that dairy inspection is not sufficiently 
adequate at present to protect the public against 
tuberculosis, typhoid, scarlet fever and diphtheria, 
but a rigid honest dairy inspection would force 
dairymen to be more careful and cleanly in the 
handling of milk, and on general principles the most 
sanitary and hygienic dairy would be the least likely 
to furnish milk infected with disease germs. It is 
likewise unfortunate that there seem to be no 
practical means of examining milk in the ordinary 
laboratory to determine whether it contains the 
germs of any of these four diseases. 

Intestinal Disorders 

Diarrhoeal diseases, summer complaint, cholera in- 
fantum are all types of intestinal disorders, common 
in warm weather. None can be directly attributed 
to a particular type of bacteria but experience in- 
dicates that they are associated with large numbers 
of bacteria in milk and are especially common 
among children in warm weather, the mortality 
from such diseases rising and falling with the bac- 
terial content of the milk used, which in turn tends 



MILK 193 

to vary with the temperature. These intestinal 
diseases are probably of a toxic nature, the bacteria 
responsible acting in an indirect way, i. e., growing 
in the food and producing poison therein, which, 
when absorbed by the human digestive tract, causes 
direct toxic poisoning. Toxic poisoning from milk, 
cream, dairy products and ice cream is well 
known, and the latter is very prevalent. All such 
poisoning, however, can be avoided by the use of 
good fresh milk with low bacterial count. If the 
milk is old and has been kept cool, the bacterial 
count may be low, due to the checked development 
of the lactic acid bacteria, but in the meanwhile 
other injurious bacteria may have developed and 
become present in such large numbers as to pro- 
duce toxic products. It must be borne in mind that 
the number of bacteria in milk depends upon (1) 
the conditions under which it was produced, (2) the 
temperature at which it has been kept, (3) the age 
of the milk. It makes no difference how fine a 
quality of milk may be produced, it will not keep 
in good condition unless properly cared for, and no 
milk will keep for any great length of time. Be- 
cause milk is sweet it must not be assumed that it is 
healthful; old, sweet milks cause most of our milk 
troubles. If such milks had soured, the lactic acid 
bacteria would have prevented the growth of the 
noxious putrefactive types, and sour milk is whole- 
some. 

Bacterial Content of Milk 

Until a few years ago the milk delivered in cities 
contained a vast and almost incredible number of 
bacteria. For instance, the general milk supply of 
Washington, D. C, during the summer of 1906 



194 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

averaged 22,134,000 per cubic centimetre, with a 
maximum of 307,800,000, the average temperature 
of the milk tested being 61.7° F. In the summer of 
1907 the milk tested averaged 11,270,000 bacteria 
per c.c. with a maximum of 280,000,000, the average 
temperature of the milk having been reduced to 
57.6° F. and more care exercised as a result of the 
campaign and publicity of the previous year. 

Sedwick and Batchelder in 1892 were the first to 
record and comment upon the bacterial content of 
milk used in an American city and they gave the 
data for the fresh milk supplied to various parts of 
Boston and its suburbs. 

Section No. of Samples Bacteria Per C.C. 

Charleston 8 4,222,500 

Jamaica Plains 10 3,259,600 

South Boston 9 2,778,000 

Roxbury 17 1,874,300 

Sixteen samples taken from grocery stores 
averaged 4,577,000 bacteria per c.c. 

Knochenstern in 1893 gave the following results 
of examinations of milk, conducted at Dorpat, 
Russia, from the middle of September, 1892, to the 
end of January, 1893 : 

From milkmen 10,200,000 bacteria per c.c. 

Village milk 12,000,000 " " " 

Market milk 25,000,000 

Shop milk 30,000,000 " " " 

Cnof in 1889 found in the milk of Munchen, 
Germany, only 5 to 6 hours after milking, from 
200,000 to 6,000,000 bacteria. Renk in 1891 re- 
ported from 6,000,000 to 30,700,000 bacteria per 
c.c. in the milk supply of Halle. He also found an 
average of 15 milligrams of cow's excrement per litre 



MILK 195 

in the milk supply of Halle; Leipzig 3.8; Berlin 
10.3 and Miinchen 9. Uhl in May, 1892, found in 
30 examinations of the milk of Giessen, bacteria 
ranging from 83,000 to 169,600,000, the average 
being 22,900,000. Investigators of Danish milk, 
sold in Berlin, reported in 1907 that such milk in 
the summer contained "between 5,000,000 bacteria 
per c.c. and innumerable quantities." Dodd in 
1904 gave the bacterial content of good class Lon- 
don milk as 4,800,000. Frye in 1896 examined <J 
samples of milk in Buffalo, N. Y., as it was de- 
livered to the consumer, and found the bacterial 
content to range from 48,000 to 43,600,000 per c.c. 
Park in 1901 found that the milk in New York, as 
it was received from the railroads during the sum- 
mer, averaged over 5,000,000 bacteria per c.c, the 
maximum being 35,200,000. Byrnes in 1904 said 
that the milk supply of Philadelphia contained 
1.600 to 21,000,000 bacteria per c.c, and Jordon in 
the same year stated that the milk supply of 
Chicago contained an average of 9,361,000 bac- 
teria per c.c. in April, 10,071,000 in May, and 
18,924,000 in June; sixteen per cent, of the samples 
tested showing over 20,000,000 bacteria per c.c 
Bergey found an average bacterial content of 
4,802,000 in ten samples of milk taken from rail- 
road depots in Philadelphia during July, 1910. 
Such enormous numbers mean but little to the 
average mind. There are few substances that con- 
tain such myraids of germ life as is found in old 
and dirty milk. Sewage is a substance which is 
popularly and rightly supposed to teem with bac- 
teria, but milk is, at times, far richer in bacterial 
life than the sewage of our large cities. Compare 
the average number of bacteria per c.c. of Boston, 



196 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Mass., sewage for 7 years, which was 2,800,000, with 
the average bacterial content of Washington, D. C, 
general milk supply during the summer of 1906, 
which was 22,134,000, or 8 times as great and with 
the milk found on a Washington milk wagon 
August 20, 1906, which contained 307,800,000 bac- 
teria per c.c. or 110 times as many as average 
Boston sewage. 

Sedgwick and Batchelder in 1892 found that 
when proper and reasonable precautions were 
taken, the bacterial content of fresh milk need not 
exceed 500 to 1000 per c.c, but when the ordinary 
flaring milk pail was used with more or less dis- 
turbance of the bedding, etc., the bacterial content 
of the milk drawn was increased to 30,000. Mac- 
Conkey in 1906 felt that freshly drawn milk, ob- 
tained with care and cleanliness, should contain less 
than 1500 bacteria per c.c. Burr in 1902, after 
taking every reasonable hygienic and sanitary pre- 
caution, found 500 organisms per c.c. in freshly 
drawn milk, and Von Freudenreich in his attempt 
to obtain a bacteria-free milk found 250 to 300 
organisms per e.c. Bergey obtained the following 
figures when operating in a dairy of the old type 
that made no pretentions to conform with the now 
well established laws of sanitation and hygiene : 

Number of bacteria in milk from udder 400 

Number of bacteria in milk from bucket 800 

Number of bacteria after passing strainer 60,000 

Number of bacteria in milk from cooler 34,000 

Number of baceria in tank below cooler 173,000 

Number of bacteria after passing bottler 84,000 

These figures indicate growing contamination 
with irregularities probably due to the difficulty of 
getting average samples. 



MILK 197 

If freshly drawn milk be promptly and rapidly 
cooled to a temperature of 50° F. or below, it is 
found that but little, if any, multiplication of micro- 
organisms occurs for some twelve hours. This fact 
should help very materially in the delivery of milk 
and the testing for bacterial content of milk as de- 
livered to the consumer. Rosenau says that Parks' 
old suggested standard of not more than 12,000 
bacteria per c.c. in warm and 5,000 in cold weather 
for freshly drawn milk seems a generous standard 
and one which, with a little care, should be easily 
attained. In regard to supply-milk 24 to 36 hours 
old, such as milk consumed in large cities, Parks 
stated that any intelligent farmer can use sufficient 
cleanliness and apply sufficient cold, with almost 
no increase in expense, to provide milk at the age 
stated, with not more than 50,000 to 100,000 bac- 
terial content per c.c. and "no milk containing more 
bacteria than this should be used." For infant 
feeding the standard adopted by Dr. Coit of 
Newark, N. J., which limits the bacterial content 
of high grade milk to not more than 10,000 per c.c, 
was a pronounced meritorious step in the right di- 
rection. Director Rosenau of the U. S. Govern- 
ment Hygienic Laboratory says "As a general rule 
it may be stated that 'certified milk' should never 
exceed 10,000 bacteria per c.c, 'inspected milk' not 
over 100,000, and health officers should aim to keep 
the general milk supply below the 100,000 mark." 

Bacterial Milk Standards 

During the last few years a large number of 
American cities have been paying attention to the 
sanitary control of market milk. Many of these 



198 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



cities require that milk offered for sale shall not 
contain more than a given number of bacteria per 
cubic centimetre as shown by the ordinary methods 
for counting bacteria. 

The following is a tabulated statement giving 
the bacteriological standards adopted by various 
cities that have a population in excess of 100,000. 
Whether or not these standards are being rigidly 
enforced, persistently or intermittently, or alto- 
gether ignored is, as Kipling would say — "another 
story." 

Maximum 
Estimated Number 



Population 


Bacteria 


Standard 




July 1st 


Allowed Standard Applies Applies 


Cities 


1914 


Per. C.C. to 


During 


Albany, N. Y. 


102,961 


500,000 Cream only 


Entire 


year 


Atlanta, Ga. 


179,292 


100,000 Raw Milk 


« 


« 






50,000 Pasteurized Milk 


« 


« 


Baltimore, Md. 


579,590 


500,000 Raw Milk 


u 


u 






15,000 Certified Milk 


« 


u 


Birmingham, Ala. 


166,154 


500,000 Raw Milk 


« 


« 


Boston, Mass. 


733,802 


500,000 Raw Milk 


« 


«< 


Cambridge, Mass. 


110,357 


500,000 Raw Milk 


(< 


tt 






100,000 Inspected Milk 


Oct. 1- 


-May 1 


Chicago, 111. 


2,393,325 


150,000 


May 2— Sept. 30 






150,000 Inspected Cream 


Oct. 1- 


-May 1 






300,000 


May 2— Sept. 30 


Columbus, Ohio 


204,567 


500,000 Raw Milk 


Entire 


year 


Dayton, Ohio 


123,794 


100,000 Raw Milk 


u 




Fall River, Mass. 


125,443 


200,000 Raw Milk 


u 




Grand Rapids, Mich. 


123,227 


200,000 Raw Milk 


u 




Indianapolis, Ind. 


259,413 


500,000 Raw Milk 


« 




Kansas City, Mo. 


281,911 


300,000 Raw Milk 


« 




Los Angeles, Cal. 


438,914 


500,000 Raw Milk 


tt 




Lowell, Mass. 


111,004 


500,000 Raw Milk 


(( 




Milwaukee, Wis. 


408,683 


250,000 Raw Milk 


u 




Minneapolis, Minn. 


333,472 


500,000 Raw Milk 


« 




Nashville, Tenn. 


114,899 


200,000 Raw Milk 


« 








10,000 Certified Milk 


tt 


« 


Newark, N. J. 


389,106 


30,000 Guaranteed Milk 
50,000 Pasteurized Milk 
100,000 Inspected Milk 


« 
tt 

<; 


ct 


New Bedford, Mass 


. 111,230 


500,000 Raw Milk 


« 


« 



MILK 



199 







100,000 Raw Milk 


Winter 


Season 


New Haven, Conn. 


144,505 


500,000 Raw Milk 


Summer Season 






' 50,000 Pasteurized, Grade A 


Entire 


year 


New York, N.Y. 


5,333,539 ■ 


[ 60,000 Raw Milk, Grade A 


« 


" 






' 100,000 Pasteurized, Grade 


B " 


a 


Oakland, Cal. 


183,002 


75,000 Raw Milk 


Oct. 1- 


-Mar. 31 






100,000 Raw Milk 


Apr. 1- 


-Sept 30 


Pittsburgh, Pa. 


564,878 


500,000 Raw Milk 


Entire 


year 


Portland, Ore. 


260,601 


| 100,000 Pasteurized Milk 
1 200,000 Raw Milk 


u 

a 


a 
a 






' 15,000 Class A Milk 


a 


a 


Salt Lake City, Utah 


109,530 - 


50,000 Pasteurized Milk 
80,000 Class B Milk 


a 
a 


a 
a 






.250,000 Class C Milk 


a 


it 


San Francisco, Cal. 


448,502 


10,000 Certified Milk 


u 


a 






100,000 Inspected Milk 


a 


a 


Seattle, Wash. 


313,029 


400,000 Raw Milk 


a 


a 


St. Louis, Mo. 


734,667 


50,000 Pasteurized Milk 


a 


a 


St. Paul, Minn. 


236,766 


500,000 Raw Milk 
r 50,000 Inspected Milk 


a 


a 

a 


Syracuse, N. Y. 


149,353 < 


10,000 Certified Milk 


a 


it 






, 250,000 Market Milk 


u 


a 


Tacoma, Wash. 


103,418 


200,000 Raw Milk 


a 


a 


Toledo, Ohio 


184,126 


500,000 Raw Milk 


a 


a 


Trenton, N. J. 


106,831 


100,000 Raw Milk 


tt 


ti 


Worcester, Mass. 


157,732 


500,000 Raw Milk 


" 


tt 



A numerical bacterial standard is a somewhat in- 
definite gauge of filth, temperature and age com- 
bined. It cannot insure the wholesomeness of the 
milk as it does not tell us the types or nature of the 
bacteria present. It is also difficult to enforce; it 
takes practically 24 hours to test the milk sample 
and when the results are determined the milk has 
been distributed and probably consumed. In spite 
of all this, the numerical standard has certainly 
proved to be of value, indirect rather than direct. 
It has made the dairymen more careful and im- 
proved dairy conditions and compliance with its 
demands has resulted in a pronounced improvement 
in the grade and wholesomeness of milk. "Care 
means safety and the extent of the care is the ex- 
tent of the safety." As the number of bacteria in 
milk has become smaller, the death rate of children 



P/7R/9BOL/C CURVES FOR B/7CTER//7L COUNTS 



10R any bacterial count a corresponding value can be found by observing the 
' jint on the curve intersected by a line leading upward from the bacterial 
• and following the line of rating value which leads to the right or left at 
this point. Thus the line leading upward from 10,000 bacteria strikes the curve 
' taDoin t through which passes the line leading to the left having rating value 
nf 10 and bacterial line 40,000 meets curve at point intersected by line of rating 
value 20; bacterial line 1,000,000 meets rating line 100. 

In the diagram a series of parabolic curves are shown, the horizontal scale 
or abscissae value being very much condensed on the larger counts in order to 
save space. The ordinate value or scale of normal rating is also 
densed as the rating increases, but to a far less extent for the i 

The scale of bacterial count changes at 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 and 1,000,000. 
These shortenings account for the disjointed appearance of the curves. 




B/9CT£rl//9L COl/A/TS. 



mHIS table is used as follows: Assume that a health board laboratory makes four 
A consecutive examinations of the milk of a single dealer, and finds bacterial counts 
as follows: 25,000, 70,000, 250,000 and 5,000,000. It desires to determine in what class 
this milk belongs. To express the character of the milk in a single figure, set opposite 
each bacteria count the normal rating value found in the above table. This would be 
as follows: 



BACTERIA COUNT | NORMAL RATINGS* 



25,000 

70,000 

250,000 

5,000,000 



79.0 



&/?CT£rl'//7L COC/MT5 



After the normal ratings are obtained for each figure, they are added together 
and averaged, as shown above, giving the average rating 79. Again referring to the 
table, it will be observed that this is equivalent to a bacteria count of about 630,000. 
Consequently the final character of the milk will be expressed by the figure 630,000 
bacteria per cubic centimetre. Pursuing this system with all milks makes it possible 
to express their character in a single figure in terms of bacteria which it is suggested 
should be called "the bacterial content," 



Fig. 16. 



200 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

has decreased and it is now generally admitted that 
a numerical standard with all its limitations is of 
great value in raising the quality of milk in any 
community ; it lessens the extent of toxic poisoning 
and, moreover, reduces the danger of its being the 
cause of diseases and infectious epidemics. 

New York claims that it is impossible to enforce 
a standard to cover its entire milk supply on ac- 
count of its complexity, enormous volume and dis- 
tance that has to be travelled to obtain its supply, 
said to be over 400 miles. A standard fixed, un- 
usually high, viz.: 1,000,000 was undertaken by the 
New York Board of Health and later abandoned, 
their principal difficulty, it was said, being to prop- 
erly place the responsibility for poor milk. Boston 
made a strict standard in 1905, also very high — 
500,000, but they have had the courage, and prob- 
ably a more effective organization, to maintain it. 
There is no excuse to-day for any city, no matter 
how large, tolerating the sale of bad milk. If the 
public health needs to be safeguarded by a pure 
water or pure milk supply it can be done, if suf- 
ficient thought and constructive energy is put into 
it and politics impregnated with selfishness, arro- 
gance and inefficiency are relegated to the rear. 

Classification of Dealers' Milks 

The New York Commission on Milk Standards 
recommended in 1912 the use of North's modifica- 
tion of Levy's method of giving each bacterial 
count a rating value. This modification consists in 
the use of such values as can be obtained from a 
parabolic curve having as ordinates the ratings and 
as abscissae the bacterial counts. The final state- 



r 






MILK 201 

ment of a series of bacterial counts is given as a 
single figure, which expresses the sanitary character 
of the milk in terms of bacteria per c.c. It was 
recommended that this figure be known as the "Bac- 
terial content." The method proposed aims to 
recognize all high counts, but at the same time, be- 
cause of the ability of some bacteria to multiply 
with extreme rapidity, it is necessary in making a 
bacterial rating to obtain figures much more repre- 
sentative of the real average character of milk (as 
given by several samples obtained within not more 
than a month's time) than could be obtained by 
single arithmetical averages. Attached will be 
found a set of curves made from Dr. C. F. North's 
computed values, also stated in table form. 

In comparing the result of one year's work with 
another, or of one city's milk supply with that of 
another, the New York Commission recommends 
the use of the Levy Method of stating the results 
of bacterial counts. The bacterial counts are divided 
into groups and to each group percentage values 
are given, the final expression being made as a single 
figure in terms of percentage. The groups and per- 
centage values recommended for each are : 

Rating Rating 

Bacterial Content Per Cent. Bacterial Content Per Cent. 

Under 10,000 100 250,000 to 500,000 20 

10,000 to 50,000 90 500,000 to 1,000,000 10 

50,000 to 100,000 75 Over 1,000,000 

100,000 to 250,000 50 

In using the above table, the bacterial content 
should be obtained from the North parabolic curves 
for several samples of milk and the average, or 



202 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

rating figure obtained. Such bacterial content 
figures are then divided into groups, each number 
being multiplied by the percentage value of its 
group, as illustrated in the following table: 



Bacterial 


No. of Test 


Corresponding 




Content 


Series 


Rating Figures 


Product 


Under 10,000 


15 


100 


1,500 


10,000 to 50,000 


20 


90 


1,800 


50,000 to 100,000 


30 


75 


2,250 


100,000 to 250,000 


40 


50 


2,000 


250,000 to 500,000 


35 


20 


700 


500,000 to 1,000,000 


50 


10 


500 


Over 1,000,000 


10 









Total 200 8,750 

8,750-^-200=43.75 per cent, average rating. 

This average of all percentages has been named 
by Levy the "Bacterial Index." 

Nature and Action of Milk Bacteria 

Almost any of the known forms of bacteria may 
live and grow and occasionally be found in milk. 
Normally, however, a comparatively few general 
forms of bacteria are present; these cause various 
changes in the constituents of milk and are known 
as organized ferments. We have already dis- 
cussed the bacteria of germ diseases, the pathogenic 
micro-organisms which may be found in milk having 
been carried therein from a diseased animal, through 
the atmosphere, from utensils, water, or from at- 
tendants, milkers or handlers of milk suffering from 
or carrying disease, and this phase we need not dwell 
upon further. The presence of bacteria to some 
extent in milk is inevitable, but it is essential that 



MILK 203 

only the common normal types of bacteria ap- 
parently natural to it be ever permitted to enter 
milk. Normal bacteria have been defined as those 
"that under all ordinary circumstances are practi- 
cally certain to be found in milk; their presence 
must always be expected and it is practically im- 
possible to avoid them." Abnormal bacteria are 
those which are less common or unusual "occurring 
in milk under certain conditions, but which can gen- 
erally, by proper means, be prevented from getting 
into the milk in quantities large enough to produce 
any effect." Bacteria in milk must be studied from 
three standpoints: 

First: Their effect upon the human organism; 
Second: Their action on milk and its relation to all 

who deal with this product, and 
Third: Their relation to butter and cheese-making. 

While bacteria may be regarded as undesirable, 
as far as milk is concerned, yet the manufacturer 
of dairy products, such as butter and cheese, are 
dependent upon their action, and sour milk or lactic 
acid buttermilk is a most healthful beneficial drink. 
It has been said that certain bacteria that are trouble- 
some to the dairymen are wholesome to the con- 
sumer, while on the other hand, some bacteria that 
are very injurious and even fatal to the consumer 
are of no special significance in dairying, so far as 
their effect upon milk is concerned. The latter fact 
is to be regretted, for if every form of micro-organ- 
ism deleterious to man would but ruin the product 
of the dairyman whenever it was permitted to get 
into his milk, it would not be long before pure safe 
milk would be universally distributed and be as com- 
mon as it is now uncommon. The normal fermenta- 



204 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

tion to which milk is subject may be divided into 
three classes : 

First: Lactic fermentation caused by lactic acid bacteria 
of several types, two, however, of which pre- 
dominate and which feed upon and cause changes 
in the milk sugar. 

Second: The changes caused by bacteria feeding upon the 
albuminoids of the milk, which can be further 
classified as peptogenic and putrefactive. To this 
general class belong the rennet- forming bacteria, 
which produce an abnormal condition known as 
sweet curdling. 

Third: Butyric fermentation which attacks the fats. Ab- 
normal milk bacteria produces unusual fermenta- 
tion in milk, which results in slimy milk, bitter 
milk, red and other colored milk (chromogenic 
fermentation), turnip milk and soapy milk, etc.: 
certain yeasts cause alcoholic fermentation and 
oidum lactis, a semi-mold, may affect old milks. 

The lactic acid bacteria are of many types, but 
two, the Bacterium Lactis Acidi, also known under 
a multiplicity of other technical names, and the Bac- 
terium Aerogenes stand forth pre-eminent. The 
former is the dairyman's friend; it turns the milk 
into a sour, smooth, solid curd with no odor, 
free of gas bubbles and without the separation of 
any whey. Such curdling is favorable for the pro- 
duction of the best grades of butter and cheese. 
This organism grows readily at temperatures from 
60° to 100° F. At a temperature of about 70° F. 
it grows with great rapidity and at this temperature 
seems to be more vigorous than any other bacterium 
ordinarily found in milk. For this reason, milk kept 
at about 70° F. becomes in a short time almost com- 
pletely filled with this type of bacteria at the ex- 



MILK 205 

pense of all the others originally present. The 
Bacterium Aerogenes of the lactic acid group is not 
as common as the Lactis Acidi, but is nevertheless 
widely distributed and is likely to be present in any 
sample of milk. The curd produced by this bac- 
terium is always more or less filled with gas bubbles 
and when bacteria of this class are present in 
considerable quantity which, fortunately for the 
cheesemakers, is not very often, they do much mis- 
chief and make what is known as swelled, bad- 
flavored cheese, a commodity which is practically 
worthless. Their presence in quantity is not so dis- 
astrous in butter making, but they are the cause of 
unpleasant flavors and a lowering of grades. When 
milk has been kept around 70° F. or somewhat 
lower, it will in most cases be soured by the Lactis 
Acidi Bacteria; if kept above 80° F. it is apt to be 
soured by the less desirable Aerogenes Bacteria. 

The B. Coli Communis is often found in milk and 
as the presence of this organism in water is a sign 
of sewage contamination, its presence in milk indi- 
cates filth and prevailing unsanitary dairy con- 
ditions. This type of bacillus lives in the intestines 
of animals and when it appears in milk it is sure 
proof that the milk is polluted with animal excreta. 
It is said that the B. Coli is found with great fre- 
quency in milk and if such milk should be placed 
under ban, a large proportion of the milk distributed 
as pure, wholesome milk would be driven from the 
market. Such bacteria are not pathogenic nor 
seriously harmful of themselves. Animal faeces 
are far less dangerous to man than human excreta 
and the B. Coli in drinking water, being a sure sign 
of water contamination, is far more serious than the 
presence of B. Coli in Milk; nevertheless, this is no 



206 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

reason why Milk Experts should ignore the exist- 
ence of bacteria in milk, the presence of which is 
indicative of filth. Animal faeces in milk is not an 
appetizing matter and, although it may not dis- 
tribute infectious disease, it is indictative of foulness 
which, unless corrected, may quite easily express 
itself in a more serious manner. Filth and disease 
are synonymous terms as regards the production 
and handling of milk. Bacteria get into milk from 
the udder, air, milking vessels and utensils, water 
(used for cleaning and at times for diluting), and 
from the milkers and milk handlers. The lactic acid 
bacteria are to be found in air, soil and water and 
the dangerous disease germs enter milk usually 
from the human attendants, milkers and handlers. 
Milk when drawn from a cow is at a temperature 
that favors the development of most ordinary 
species of bacteria and it would seem that the ma- 
jority of them multiply most rapidly at about body 
heat, or 90° to 100° F. Conn gives the following 
interesting synopsis of bacterial action affected by 
temperature : 

33° F. If milk is frozen, bacteria do not grow at 
all. If a degree or two above freezing they grow 
very slowly, so slowly that for days there is prac- 
tically no increase in numbers. After two or three 
weeks, they are found to be abundant. Such milk 
will neither sour nor curdle, and although "sweet/ 
it may, when very old, contain bacteria in great 
numbers and be quite harmful. 

40° F. Same conditions, but bacteria grow more 
quickly. Many cases of milk and ice-cream poison- 
ing can be attributed to keeping milk and cream for 
many days at low temperatures. "The emphatic 
lesson to be drawn is that no normal milk that has 



MILK 207 

been kept for many days is safe even though it re- 
main sweet." 

50° F. Same condition, but bacteria develop still 
more rapidly. At this temperature the species which 
grow are commonly not lactic bacteria but a large 
variety of miscellaneous forms which, though gen- 
erally harmless unless present in tremendous quanti- 
ties, are more likely to contain species which give 
ptomaine poisoning, summer complaint, cholera in- 
fantum. 

60° F. — 70° F. The growth of bacteria is very 
rapid at this temperature, which is favorable to the 
normal, harmless and useful lactic acid bacteria, 
and they multiply far more rapidly than any other 
species. "At the outset, the number of lactic acid 
bacteria is comparatively small, frequently less than 
one per cent., and seldom as high as 10 per cent., but 
they constantly increase hour after hour and when 
the milk is 24 hours old, the lactic acid bacteria are 
apt to comprise 50 per cent, of the whole. In an- 
other day, just about the time the milk is ready to 
sour, the proportion of this type is commonly over 
05 per cent. In other words, if milk is preserved at 
a temperature of from 60° to 70° the lactic acid 
bacteria far outrun other species and soon take thei r 
place. The acid which they develop seems to be 
injurious to the other species and these rapidly dis- 
appear as the lactic organisms increase in numbers. 
Milk which sours at a temperature of about 70° F. 
will, as a rule, be found to contain nearty a pure 
having disappeared." Lactic acid bacteria are not 
present in quantity in fresh milk; they represent a 
organisms which were so abundant at the outset 
culture of the common lactic acid type, the other 
woefully small minority of bacterial life. When the 



208 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

milk is kept at ordinary temperature, however, they 
soon outnumber the other species and are the dairy 
bacteria par excellence. 

80°F. — 100° F. At these temperatures, the Bact. 
Lactis Acidi and the gas-producing Bac. Aerogenes 
may fight between themselves for supremacy and 
possibly both may succumb to some other species 
which may dominate the mass. At all such tempera- 
tures the results are variable and milk to be used for 
butter or cheese-making has to be kept below 80° F. 

Lactic bacteria protect the milk from putrefac- 
tion and it has even been seriously suggested that 
milk to be used for drinking "should be inoculated 
with lactic bacteria to insure their presence and aid 
in the exclusion of other species." Pasteurized milk 
which has been robbed of its lactic acid protecting 
bacteria will ordinarily not sour and it seems to keep 
good for a long time, but such milk inevitably and 
ultimately undergoes decomposition and the milk 
becomes vile with age and unfit for use. Lactic 
acid bacteria are not harmful but seem to have a 
beneficial effect upon the human intestinal tract. 
Buttermilk and lactic acid sour milk may contain 
500,000,000 bacteria per c.c. and are recommended 
very extensively to invalids, both adults and chil- 
dren. The bacterial count, therefore, must be used 
with judgment and deliberately soured milk must 
not be confused with milk that is claimed to be pure, 
fresh and sweet. 

Pasteurization of Milk 

Pasteurization as applied to milk consists of heat- 
ing it for a certain period of time at a temperature 
below the boiling point, followed by rapid chilling. 
The object is not so much to preserve the milk as it 



MILK 209 

is to destroy the harmful bacteria and their product. 
Pasteur in 1860-1880 devised methods of treating 
wines and beers to prevent souring and undesirable 
fermentation. He heated wine for a few minutes 
to a temperature of about 120°- 140° F. and beer to 
110°-130° F. and the application of this process 
gave rise to the new term "pasteurization." In 1886, 
Soxhlet advocated the heating of milk for infant 
feeding. He termed it "sterilization" but it was 
soon proven that he was deceiving himself and his 
"sterile" milk was far from being sterile and under 
certain conditions, when aged, produced harmful 
results. Pasteurized milk really means heated milk 
and is not necessarily synonymous with clean milk, 
good milk or pure milk and it describes in no way 
the source or the original quality of the milk. 
Pasteurization does not claim to be sterilization but 
it is an attempt to destroy harmful bacteria without 
injuring the milk. It has been found that heating 
milk for prolonged periods and at very high 
temperatures is undesirable and, moreover, unneces- 
sary. The scientific heating of milk at a certain 
temperature and for a certain period of time, suf- 
ficient and no more, to kill harmful bacteria is 
pasteurization, provided the milk immediately after 
being subjected to heat is rapidly cooled; this latter 
phase is an important part of the process. Rosenau 
says, "In order to correct the misconception con- 
cerning 'pasteurized milk' it would be better to dis- 
continue the use of the term and use in its place 
'heated milk' stating the degree of heat and the 
time of exposure on each bottle as well as the date 
on which the milk was heated." We could also add 
the date the milk was taken from the cow and the 



210 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

data pertaining to subsequent cooling after the 
heating process. 

If heated milk is cooled slowly or naturally it will 
remain for a long time at temperatures between 65° 
and 100° F. which thermal condition is favorable for 
the development of bacteria and their toxic pro- 
ducts, hence the need of immediately chilling heated 
milk after it has gone through the first stage of the 
pasteurization process. 

Pasteurization, it has been said, "merely tempo- 
rarily checks fermentation." Bitter said that it "de- 
stroys a large part of the bacteria in milk and this 
reduction in numbers greatly increases its keeping 
property." Conn has stated that the chief effects of 
scientific pasteurizing are ( 1 ) the destruction of the 
larger part of the lactic acid bacteria and as a con- 
sequence pasteurized milk will not ordinarily sour. 
(2) The destruction of the germs of specific diseases, 
including tuberculosis, typhoid fever, scarlet fever 
and diphtheria. We therefore see that pasteurizing, 
properly performed, kills all pathogenic bacteria 
and herein lies its great worth to mankind, but in 
destroying these noxious micro-organisms, it also 
robs the milk of its natural "germicidal" properties, 
for it kills the lactic acid bacteria and any surviving 
species of bacteria will not have so hard a struggle 
for existence in heated milk as in ordinary milk. 
Rosenau says, "Pasteurized milk must be handled 
at least as carefully as raw milk, if not more so," 
and "Bacteria grow more readily in heated than in 
raw milk." Pasteurized milk keeps longer than raw 
milk because it has been robbed of the lactic acid 
bacteria that sour it, but pasteurized milk ages and 
rots and should not be used when old. Pasteuriza- 
tion cannot make poor milk into good milk; it can 



MILK 211 

kill all pathogenic germs therein but it cannot atone 
for filth. Pasteurization does not make clean milk. 
Milk is the most wholesome and nourishing liquid 
consumed by man. It is nature's food to the young 
of each species of mammals, but milk taken from 
the female of any species and used for consumption 
elsewhere or indirectly, becomes a dangerous as well 
as a nourishing commodity. Milk is of all sub- 
stances the most difficult to handle and preserve 
pure and wholesome. Milk is a strange contradic- 
tion, it being the most wholesome food fluid and 
sometimes one of the most poisonous of all foods. 
Pasteurization is a corrective method designed to 
destroy noxious bacteria in milk; preventive 
methods are better, for "pure milk is better than 
purified milk," but if dairy men will not adopt 
means to safeguard the health of milk consumers, 
pasteurization may become necessary to rid market 
milk of its insidious foes to health and infant life. 
Children and particularly young infants need pure, 
raw milk. Pasteurized milk is a milk that has 
undergone certain changes and it is not as healthful 
as pure, raw milk for the very young; it is, however, 
when well prepared and made from fresh good 
milk, far better than questionable, dirty and old, 
stale milk, as the children's mortality report of any 
large city, using pasteurized milk, will clearly prove. 
U. S. Government Reports state that the average 
commercial milk of large cities is not a safe food. 
The principal reasons for this are the ignorance and 
indifference of those engaged in the dairy business, 
filthy barns, unclean and unhealthy cows, improper 
care of utensils and containers, insufficient cooling 
of the milk, unconcern in regard to the guarding of 
water to prevent contamination, long transporta- 



212 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

tion, unnecessary and frequent handling, imperfect 
cleaning and lack of sterilization of the containers, 
bottles, etc., indifference to the laws of hygiene and 
sanitation, carelessness pertaining to the cleanliness 
and health of dairymen and milk handlers and fre- 
quent close association with contagious or infectious 
diseases. 

Investigators commenting on the difficulty in ob- 
taining a clean and reliable fresh milk supply in 
our large cities, tell us that Washington is supplied 
by 1,000 farms located in two states, some of the 
cream coming from distant points in Pennsylvania 
and New York. Boston obtains its required milk 
from a large area within a radius of about 100 miles. 
The milk consumed in New York is produced in 
about 40,000 farms, scattered over 8 different states, 
passes through more than 400 creameries, and comes 
over 12 different lines of transportation. Some of 
the milk, at certain seasons, reaches New York from 
the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, Canada, and 
shipments of cream arrive daily from Ohio. One 
hundred and fifty wholesale dealers are engaged in 
the business and the retail stores number over 
13,000; the daily consumption is about 2,500,000 
quarts of which only 50,000 quarts is Grade A Raw 
certified or uncertified, 150,000 quarts Grade A 
pasteurized and the remainder (about 2,300,000 
quarts ) is Grade B pasteurized. From this extreme 
case we find every grade of complexity down to the 
small village and the individual farmhouse where 
fresh milk is obtained twice daily. 

Pasteurization in bulk is practiced on a large scale 
in Europe particularly where tubercular cattle are 
common. The Danish Law of 1898, requiring 
pasteurization, was a "measure for combating 



MILK 213 

tuberculosis in cattle and hogs." If cattle need pro- 
tection from infected milk, how much more does 
man! Commercially pasteurized milk is in general 
use in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, etc., and in all 
congested centres its use is being rapidly extended. 

The changes produced in milk by heating depend 
upon the degree of heat and the length of exposure. 
Scientific pasteurizing, we are told, does not ap- 
preciably affect the chemical and physical proper- 
ties of milk and has no effect upon its digestibility 
cr ease of assimilation. The heat applied in pasteur- 
ization does not materially affect the taste, if at all, 
nor do the albuminoids of the milk coagulate. When 
milk is boiled or "sterilized," however, the results are 
very different; pronounced changes are produced 
and the taste and virtue of the fluid materially im- 
paired. It has been claimed that whereas laboratory 
experiments do not show it, nevertheless pasteuriza- 
tion does impair the all-round food value of milk 
and affects particularly in the case of children its 
ease and thoroughness of assimilation. Conn, dis- 
cussing this subject, advocates home pasteurization 
and says, "The danger to children from tuberculosis 
and other troublesome diseases in the milk has not 
yet been guarded against by any public means. 
Hence, there is a growing tendency on the part of 
people of intelligence, who are bringing up children 
on milk, to pasteurize it. This plan is to be recom- 
mended in cases where the child must depend upon 
milk, the source of which cannot be strictly relied 
upon. Perhaps such pasteurized milk is not as 
valuable a food as unpasteurized milk from abso- 
lutely reliable sources, but with the conditions in our 
cities, it is almost impossible to find milk that can 
be strictly relied upon to contain no dangerous dis- 



214 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

ease germs. Under these circumstances pasteuriz- 
ing is the only safe method by which a young child 
can safely be fed upon milk." 

The Commission on Milk Standards originally 
appointed by the New York Milk Committee, with 
recognized experts from all parts of the country and 
whose reports have been incorporated into the 
records of the U. S. Public Health Service, have 
said: The Commission thinks that pasteurization is 
necessary for all milk, at all times, excepting 
Grade A, raw milk. The majority of the Com- 
missioners voted in favor of the pasteurization of 
all milk, including Grade A, raw milk. Since this 
was not unanimous, the Commission recommends 
that the pasteurization of Grade A, raw milk be 
optional. The process of pasteurization should be 
under official supervision. Automatic temperature 
regulators and recording thermometers should be 
required and the efficiency of the process frequently 
determined by laboratory testing. 

The destruction of the chemical constituents of 
milk by heat occurs at higher temperatures than 
those necessary for the destruction of the bacteria 
of infectious diseases transmissible by milk. 

The Commission passed a resolution regarding 
the temperature of pasteurization as follows : 

That pasteurization of milk should be between 
the limits of 140° F. and 155° F. At 140° F. 
the minimum exposure should be 20 minutes. 
For every degree above 140° F. the time may be 
reduced by 1 minute. In no case should the ex- 
posure be for less than 5 minutes. 

In order to allow for a margin of safety under 
commercial conditions, the Commission recom- 



MILK 215 

mended that the minimum temperature during the 
period of holding should be made 145° F. and the 
holding time 30 minutes. Pasteurization in bulk 
when properly carried out has proven satisfactory, 
but pasteurization in the final container is prefer- 
able and should be encouraged. 

The Commission also required that milk to be 
pasteurized should be cooled when taken from the 
cow, and held at or below 60° F. until it is pasteur- 
ized. (They should have required a maximum 
temperature of 50° F. instead of 60° F.) After 
pasteurization they insisted that the milk be held at 
a temperature not exceeding 50° F. until delivered 
to the consumer. 

The Commission's requirements in regard to 
Bacterial Standards of Pasteurized Milk are : 

"It shall not contain more than 1,000,000 bacteria 
per c.c. before pasteurization, nor more than 50,000 
when delivered to the consumer," but it is recom- 
mended that the limits both before and after 
pasteurization be lower. 

The two dominant factors that control the 
temperature and time at which milk shall be 
pasteurized are, (1) the thermal death points of 
pathogenic bacteria, and (2) the ferments in the 
milk. The first must be surely killed so as to 
eliminate this danger, and the second should not be 
affected sufficiently to "devitalize" the milk. 

So far as we are able to judge from our present 
knowledge, the best temperature is 145° F. con- 
tinued for twenty minutes. A higher degree of 
heat for a shorter period is just as effective so far 
as the destruction of the bacteria is concerned, but 
high temperatures in the treatment of milk are to be 
avoided. Freeman in 1907 recommend 140° F. 



216 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

for 40 minutes; Smith in 1899, 140° F. for 20 
minutes; Hippius in 1905, 140° F. for one hour; 
Hesse, Russell and Hastings in 1900 all recom- 
mended a temperature of 140° F. maintained for 20 
minutes. Fortunately none of the micro-organisms 
causing tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria, 
scarlet fever, Malta fever, dysentery, etc., are spore- 
producing bacteria, therefore, a comparatively 
moderate degree of heat is sufficient to destroy 
them. Rosenau's experiments with the tubercle 
bacillus upon guinea pigs, demonstrate conclusively 
that the bacillus loses its virulence and infective 
power when heated at 140° F. for 20 minutes; in 
other words, it may be considered dead. When 
heated to 149° F. a much shorter time is necessary. 
Summing up the research investigations conducted 
with reference to the thermal death point of patho- 
genic micro-organisms in milk, Rosenau says: "The 
evidence is plain that milk heated to 140° F. and 
maintained at that temperature for two minutes will 
kill the typhoid bacillus. The great majority of 
those organisms are killed by the time the tempera- 
ture reaches 138° F., and few survive to 140° F. 

The diphtheria bacillus succumbs at compara- 
tively low temperatures. Oftentimes it fails to grow 
after heating to 131° F. Some occasionally sur- 
vive until the milk reaches 140° F. 

The cholera vibrio is similar to the diphtheria 
bacillus so far as its thermal death point is con- 
cerned. It is usually destroyed when the milk 
reaches 131° F. ; only once did it survive to 140° F. 
under the conditions of the experiments. 

The dysentery bacillus is somewhat more resistant 
to heat than the typhoid bacillus. It sometimes 
withstands heating at 140° F. for five minutes. All 



MILK 217 

are killed at 140° F. for ten minutes. However, the 
majority of these micro-organisms are killed by the 
time the milk reaches 140° F. 

So far as can be judged from the meager evi- 
dence at hand, 140° F. for twenty minutes is more 
than sufficient to destroy the infective principle of 
Malta fever in milk. The M . melitensis is not de- 
stroyed at 131° F. for a short time; the great ma- 
jority of these organisms die at 136.4° F. and at 
140° F. all are killed. 

Milk heated to 140° F. and maintained at that 
temperature for twenty minutes may, therefore, be 
considered safe so far as conveying infection with 
the micro-organisms is concerned. 

It is fortunate that the thermal death point of the 
pathogenic bacteria which most concern us, is 
below those of the ferments in milk, for in this way 
all infectiousness may be destroyed without " de- 
vitalizing' ' the milk. 

An interesting chart, prepared by Dr. North, is 
attached, which shows graphically the temperature 
and time of exposure necessary to effectively 
destroy pathogenic micro-organisms and properly 
treat the milk during the first or heating stage of 
the process of pasteurization. 

It is to be regretted that conditions are such as 
make the pasteurization of milk in many cases es- 
sential for the proper safeguarding of health. It 
has been clearly demonstrated that pasteurization 
prevents sickness and saves lives, but unless drastic 
laws are passed to protect the public, it is apt to pro- 
mote carelessness in the dairy, discourage the efforts 
to produce clean milk and take the place of inspec- 
tion and improvements in dairy methods and condi- 
tions. Milk should not be pasteurized unless it con- 



218 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



forms with certain chemical and bacteriological 
standards, and if it is known to be unfit for sale as a 

TIML AND TE.MPF.RATURE FOR 
MILK PASTEURIZATION. 




10' 20' 30' 

TIME. IN MJNVTE6 

Fig. 17. 



MILK 219 

good, clean, fresh milk it should be unfit for 'pasteur- 
ization, 

Nathan Straus has devoted much time and 
money to improving the quality of city milk and has 
been a strong advocate of pasteurization. In a 
paper prepared for the Seventh International 
Congress of Applied Chemistry he said, "I have 
done what one man could do to stop the slaughter 
of children. In 1892 I was convinced that infected 
milk was responsible for the excessive infantile death 
rate and for the persistence of tuberculosis among 
human beings. Forthwith I proceeded to put 
pasteurized milk within the reach of the children of 
New York City. Instant was the response in de- 
creased mortality and conclusive was the demonstra- 
tion obtained by feeding the city waifs on Randall's 
Island with pasteurized milk, resulting in the reduc- 
tion of the death rate from 44 to 19.8 per cent. 
* * * My work was bitterly opposed. I could 
only point to the babies fed upon pasteurized milk 
to prove that I was right. Objections to pasteuriza- 
tion multiplied, based entirely upon ignorance or 
hostility at the idea of a mere layman teaching how 
to save lives. * * * With no purpose but to 
save lives I was compelled to be on the defensive 
and the extension of the benefits of pasteurization 
was hindered everywhere by the noisy clamor of 
those who did not know and who would not believe." 

The Public Health Service of the United States 
has now given to the public "a complete and 
thorough vindication of pasteurization, proving 
scientifically that the heat necessary to kill the germs 
of disease does not impair the ferments necessary to 
digestion, does not deteriorate the quality of the 
milk or lessen its food value, does not alter its chemi- 



220 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

cal or physical qualities and does prevent much sick- 
ness and save many lives. * * * When the re- 
sults of this American investigation are properly 
grasped by the medical profession and by the officers 
charged with the protection of the health of nations 
and communities, it will be held to be a crime to sell 
milk unless it has been produced under sanitary con- 
ditions from tuberculosis-tested herds and delivered 
uncont animated in sterilized containers or unless it 
has been properly pasteurized." 

B. R. Rickards, formerly Director of the Boston 
Board of Health Laboratory, has said that the 
efficiency of commercial pasteurization he has found 
to vary from 92.4 to 98.9 per cent. He calls atten- 
tion to the very great rapidity with which organisms 
increase in pasteurized milk. For instance, in 24 
hours at the temperature of the ice-box the number 
of organisms in pasteurized milk increased 84 fold, 
while the number in unpasteurized milk in the 
same setting increased only one-fourth as much. 
Pasteurized milk keeps a long time but eventually 
acquires a strong odor and may reach rather ad- 
vanced stages of decomposition without turning 
sour and this, of course, is a pronounced element 
of danger. In almost every case reported by 
Rickards the pasteurized milk, although heavily 
loaded with bacteria, did not decompose until after 
the unpasteurized milk, taken at the same time, had 
curdled. It is evident that old pasteurized milk or 
pasteurized bad milk, although apparently sweet, 
must be decidedly unfit for the consumption of chil- 
dren. Rickards has also reached the following con- 
clusions : 

1. Commercial pasteurization of milk without 
restriction puts a premium on dirty milk, since dirty 



MILK 221 

and old milk, otherwise unsalable, can then be put 
on the market. Pasteurized milk may mean cooked 
dirt, cooked dung and cooked bacterial products. 

2. A false sense of security is conveyed by the 
term "pasteurized milk." This lack of security may 
come from either improper pasteurization, the 
pasteurization of improperly handled milk or im- 
proper care of pasteurized milk. 

3. The unrestricted pasteurization of improperly 
kept, old or dirty milk should be prevented by regu- 
lations and ordinances prohibiting the pasteuriza- 
tion of milk containing over a certain specified num- 
ber of bacteria per c.c. Such regulations should, of 
course, be coupled with a law forbidding the sale of 
milk above the bacterial limit established. 

In the United States three processes of pasteur- 
ization are used. These are known as the flash pro- 
cess, the holder process and pasteurization in the 
bottle. The names practically describe the pro- 
cesses. In the flash process the milk is raised quickly 
to a temperature of about 160° F. or more, held 
there from thirty seconds to a minute and then 
cooled quickly. In the holder process the milk is 
heated to a temperature of 140° to 150° F. and held 
there for about half an hour. When pasteurization 
in bottles is practiced, the raw milk is put into bottles 
with water-tight seal caps, which are immersed in 
hot water and held for twenty to thirty minutes at 
a temperature of about 145° F. In this last way the 
pasteurized milk is not subjected to the danger of 
reinfection. On the other hand, the seal caps must 
be absolutely tight, and this involves increased cost. 
Whereas the pasteurization in small bottles is by 
far the best from a consumers and health standpoint, 
nevertheless the holder process is coming into 



222 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

greater commercial favor than either of the others. 
The precautions thrown about the pasteurization of 
raw milk should be observed in protecting the milk 
after it is pasteurized. One false step in this hand- 
ling of pasteurized milk will undo all the good 
effects of the process. 

We do not care to boil all our drinking water, but 
we do so readily when we know that it is denied at 
its source. We should pasteurize milk when we 
have doubts or qualms in regard to its purity and 
wholesomeness, but with milk as with water it would 
be far better for us to remove the cause of con- 
tamination and eliminate the risk and danger of 
pollution. 

An eminent sanitarian in New York, in his writ- 
ings and public addresses discouraged pasteuriza- 
tion, because theoretically it does not reach the 
source of the evil, and is not as good in the end as 
purification of the milk supply through efficient in- 
spection. However, when this same sanitarian was 
consulted by a large wholesale dealer of New York, 
who handles many thousands of quarts of more or 
less old, dirty milk a day (the best he could get) , the 
expert was confronted by a condition, not a theory, 
and after mature consideration was compelled to 
advise pasteurization. Proper and rigidly enforced 
milk laws would overcome this condition, but if such 
laws are not made or if made, give no security be- 
cause of politics, cost of enforcement or inefficient 
officials, there seems to be no other recourse but the 
adoption of pasteurization. If milk is pasteurized it 
should be cared for fully as much as untreated milk 
— preferably more, for the acid-producing bacteria, 
nature's danger signal, have been destroyed. Park 
and Holt have found 100,000,000 bacteria per c.c. 



MILK 223 

and these mostly spore-bearing, in samples of old 
pasteurized milk being used for domestic purposes ; 
hence the need of marking the age of milk on every 
container. 

Pasteurization of all the milk supplied to a com- 
munity may not be desirable. Clean, fresh milk, 
certified and free from contamination and produced 
under hygienic and sanitary conditions as they affect 
cows, dairymen, milk handlers, physical equipment 
and housings, may not need it. Raw milk, pure and 
wholesome is preferable, as it is a natural food drink ; 
certain children and invalids may need it. but after 
all the general public and the buyers and consumers 
of the average run of milk should be protected, and 
the poor and those living in the congested quarters 
of cities should be safeguarded against that milk, 
stale, dirty and uncared for, which forms the bulk 
of the milk supply of our thickly populated centers. 
Even if milk is pasteurized, the need of laws or 
ordinances requiring dating, cooling and reasonable 
prompt delivery are positively essential for the 
proper protection of health. 

Theobald Smith in 1907 expressed the opinion 
that pasteurization is the inevitable outcome of the 
future. He says, "It seems to me that the real 
difficulty of the present condition is the transmis- 
sion of specific disease germs which are not easily 
controlled by any amount of cleanliness, and these 
specific disease germs, one and all of them, may be 
destroyed by the average pasteurization." 

Sedgwick voiced the opinion of many sanitarians 
when he stated, "when all is said and done, I agree 
with Professor Smith that we have got to pasteurize 
milk. Heated milk is the only safe milk and will 
always remain the only safe milk for the use of man- 



224 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

kind. Little by little the idea is spreading that raw 
milk is apt to be dangerous milk." 

Rosenau says, "Theoretically, pasteurization 
should not be necessary; practically, we find it 
forced upon us. The heating of milk has certain 
disadvantages which must be given consideration, 
but it effectually prevents much disease and death, 
especially in infants during the summer months." 

Sterilized Milk 

A distinction should be made between two terms 
which are often used synonymously, viz. : Steriliza- 
tion and Pasteurization. The U. S. standards 
established for dairy products describe sterilized 
milk as "milk that has been heated at the tempera- 
ture of boiling water or higher for a length of time 
sufficient to kill all organisms present," and pasteur- 
ized milk is also described most unsatisfactorily as 
"milk that has been heated below boiling, but suf- 
ficiently to kill most of the active organisms present 
and immediately cooled to 50° F. or lower." By 
popular usage, boiled milk is sterilized, and heated 
milk is pasteurized, and both terms unless qualified 
mean but little and are apt to be very deceiving. To 
make any liquid or other substance sterile, is to free 
it from all reproductive bacteria or spores — to 
destroy all the micro-organisms and all forms of life 
contained therein or thereon, or make them in- 
capable of reproduction, virility or function. Steril- 
ized milk is milk treated so that all the bacteria have 
been destroyed. This requires a temperature in 
excess of that of boiling, for milk contains spores 
that cannot be killed by boiling. Fleischmann said 
that sterilization of milk could be obtained by sub- 
mitting it to the action of continuous steaming for 



MILK 225 

2 hours at a temperature of 248° F. or for 30 
minutes at 266° F. Conn says that in order to de- 
stroy bacteria in milk "a temperature of 220° to 
230° F. is necessary, and to obtain this the milk 
must be heated in sealed chambers under steam 
pressure." He also adds that sterilized milk "is 
rarely found outside of a bacteriologist's labora- 
tory." It is doubtful if perfect commercial sterili- 
zation of milk could be effected, and neither the 
Fleischmann or Conn suggested temperatures and 
periods of exposure will produce sterile milk. Alter- 
nate heating and cooling or "Intermittent steriliza- 
tion" would be necessary and when sterility was ulti- 
mately obtained, the milk would have lost its virtue 
as a food drink. Submitting milk to a high tempera- 
ture is very objectionable, for when so treated the 
composition of the milk undergoes a certain amount 
of change which not merely affects its biological 
but also its physical condition. Rosenau has said 
that the boiling of milk produces the following pro- 
nounced changes : 

"Decomposition of the proteins, and other com- 
plex nitrogenous derivatives; diminution of the 
organic phosphorus; increase of inorganic phos- 
phorus; precipitation of the calcium and mag- 
nesium salts and the greater part of the phos- 
phates ; expulsion of the greater part of the car- 
bon dioxide; caramelization or burning of a cer- 
tain portion of the milk sugar (lactose), causing 
the brownish color; partial disarrangement of 
the normal emulsion and coalescence of some of 
the fat globules; coagulation of the serum 
albumen, which begins at 167° F. 

The casein is rendered less easy of coagula- 
tion by rennin and is more slowly and imper- 



226 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

fectly acted upon by pepsin and pancreatin. 
Boiling gives the milk a 'cooked' taste. The 
cream does not rise well, if at all.'' 

Milk that will not keep indefinitely is not steril- 
ized, and no milk has been commercially treated that 
does not contain bacterial spores which, in time, will 
develop and cause its decomposition. Moreover, if 
such milk were procurable the treatment by heat re- 
quired for sterilization would make it undesirable 
as a food for the average adult and positively un- 
suited for the nourishment of children and invalids. 
Boiled milk is not sterilized milk and is not to be 
compared as a food drink with natural, pure, whole- 
some fresh milk. If raw milk is of questionable 
quality and a community is in the throes of an epi- 
demic of disease, pasteurized milk and not boiled 
milk should be used. If pasteurized milk cannot be 
obtained from a reliable dealer, then the Straus 
Home Pasteurizer, inexpensive and simple to 
operate, should be used by the housewife in the home 
to protect the health of the family. 

The Grading of Milk 

Milk is one of the few articles of food to which 
two kinds of standards are applicable and for which 
two kinds of standards are essential. One of these 
is the chemical standard by which to judge the food 
value of milk and has for its prime purposes the 
prevention of fraud on the part of the dealer and to 
insure the purchaser's receiving the number of food 
units for which he pays and the proper balance of 
the essential food ingredients. The other standard, 
at times even more important, is that by which to 
measure the sanitary quality of the milk or the 



MILK 227 

standard of decency and health of the cows produc- 
ing it and the dairymen handling it. John F. 
Anderson, President of the American Public 
Health Association, has said that "When a farmer 
has an apple orchard he expects to sell his apples on 
grade. — a higher price for the best, a lower for the 
others; he never expects to sell all for the same 
price. It is the same when eggs are sold; they are 
sold strictly on grade — the freshest and those de- 
livered to the consumer most quickly after being 
laid, command the highest price, those not so fresh a 
lower price, and so on ; and when the best are mixed 
with the others the price is that of an inferior grade. 
When the farmer comes to sell his milk to the 
dealer, and the dealer to sell it to the consumer, 
what do we find is the usual practice? As a rule, 
the good milk is mixed with the bad and sold for one 
price and that price is generally less than the price 
the good milk should bring. The bad milk should 
not be sold at all." 

The one quality, one price practice of selling 
milk is unfair to decent, careful and honest farmers, 
puts a premium on slipshod methods and encourages 
the careless, shiftless farmers in the production of 
dirty and unsafe milk. 

"It is certainly a fact that there are persons who 
either through ignorance or apathy do not care 
whether the milk they buy is clean and safe or not. 
To them all milk is the same. The majority of milk 
consumers, however, want clean, safe milk. They 
want a milk that is free from disease germs and that 
they can give with confidence to their children. They 
want the best milk, but on account of the operation 
cf the 'one-quality one-price' system they cannot 



228 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

distinguish between the clean, safe milk and the 
dirty, unsafe milk. They have no difficulty, how- 
ever, in getting the best quality of eggs when such 
are wanted, as eggs are not sold under the 'one- 
quality one-price' system but are sold on grade. 
When those of the community who value decency 
and safety become sufficiently aroused to demand 
that a distinction be made between the good and the 
bad milk, decent dealers will be found who will pro- 
vide a safe milk at a reasonable price." 

When milk is sold on grade it will not be long 
before Health Inspectors will be able to prohibit 
the worst grades and gradually eliminate all bad 
milk from the market by making the acceptable re- 
quirements more and more drastic in the interest of 
public safety. Anderson has truly said that "There 
can be no question that the production of so-called 
certified milk has been one of the biggest factors in 
the improvement of the general milk supply, and 
this in spite of the fact that certified milk is less than 
one per cent, of the total milk supply ; but wherever 
certified milk is sold, that place at once has forced 
upon it grades of milk, and grades of milk mean 
that the milk supply is composed of milk of varying 
degrees of excellence and sold for prices varying 
with its sanitary quality. The grading of milk and 
the establishment and enforcement of standards 
enable us at once to distinguish clean milk from 
dirty milk, the clean farmer from the dirty farmer, 
the clean dealer from the dirty dealer, the consumer 
of clean milk from the consumer of dirty milk. This 
system puts a label on each grade, so that the buyer 
may choose ; it breaks up the 'one-quality one-price' 
system and creates several qualities at several 



MILK 229 

prices; it stimulates the production and sale of 
better milk." 

The New York Milk Commission has done 
splendid work in an effort to directly improve the 
milk supply of New York City, and indirectly that 
of every community in the United States. Their 
report states that "While public health authorities 
must necessarily see that the source of supply and 
the chemical composition should correspond with 
established definitions of milk as a food, their most 
important duty is to prevent the transmission of 
disease through milk. This means the control of in- 
fantile diarrhoea, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, diph- 
theria, scarlet fever, septic throat infections, and 
other infectious diseases in so far as they are carried 
by milk. There is no escape from the conclusion 
that milk must be graded and sold on grade, just as 
wheat, corn, cotton, beef, and other products are 
graded. The milk merchant must judge of the food 
value and also of the sanitary character of the com- 
modity in which he deals. The high-grade product 
must get a better price than at present. The low- 
grade product must bring less." 

The Commission recommended that milk shall 
be divided into three grades which can be briefly 
summarized as follows : 







Maximum bacterial 


1 


When sold Bacteria 


content per c.c. of 




per c.c. to be 


raw milk before 


Grade Nature 


less than 


pasteurizing 


A. Raw 


100,000 




A. Pasteurized 


10,000 


200,000 


B. 


50,000 


1,000,000 


C. 


50,000 


Over 1,000,000 



230 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

It was recommended that Grade C, if used at all, 
should only be used for cooking and manufacturing 
purposes. It is said that more and more of the milk 
supply of New York City is being turned to "Grade 
A Pasteurized Milk," a good safe milk which sells 
for 10 and 11 cents per quart and is free from patho- 
genic germs and low in bacterial content, if used 
when fresh. Such milk is obtained from cows free 
from disease, as determined by physical examina- 
tion by qualified veterinarians. 

No raw milk, except Grade A should be used at 
any time and the cows from which this milk is ob- 
tained should pass the tuberculin test and all the 
dairy employees handling the cows and their milk 
should pass the medical inspection of a qualified 
physician before such milk should receive the 
designation "Grade A." 

To improve the quality of milk in any community 
it is recommended that the reports of all laboratory 
analyses and investigations of milk made by depart- 
ments of health be regularly published and that the 
sale of mislabeled or misbranded milk be punished 
with suitable penalties. 

Milk should not only be graded, based on its 
sanitary and hygienic properties, but on its food 
value also. Abnormal or adulterated milk with 
desirable low bacterial content, but with unde- 
sirable low food value should not sell for the same 
price as good rich milk likewise low in bacterial 
content. Skim milk does not sell for the same 
price as raw milk containing its natural fat or 
cream, and there is no reason why a milk with 2 
per cent, of fat should command the same price as 
one containing 4 per cent, or twice as much fat. A 



MILK 231 

dairyman may be quite ethical in unconsciously sell- 
ing for the full market price, pure but abnormal 
milk — the natural product of lactation of his cows 
which, however, are very poor milk givers — but 
there is no reason why the consumer should pay even 
an honest farmer nine or ten cents per quart for 
milk which carries only six cents of nourishment 
based on market values. As far as food value is 
concerned, the honest farmer with cows secreting 
milk of abnormal low food value gives the consumer 
no more for his money than the unscrupulous dairy- 
man who deliberately adulterates his milk; in one 
case the farmer may be both ignorant and un- 
fortunate, but in the other he is criminal. The 
variation in the composition of milk is due to the 
breed and individuality of cows, the period of lacta- 
tion, feeding, mode of life and environment, health 
and peculiar physical characteristics, etc. So un- 
satisfactory is the present custom of buying milk by 
measure, without regard to its food value, that im- 
portant changes appear to be inevitable in the near 
future, and milk will probably be bought not only 
by grade determined by its bacterial content, but 
also by food value determined by its analysis. 

If we value milk in direct accordance with its 
calorific or food value and if we consider as a 
standard milk, worth say 9 cents per quart, that milk 
containing the minimum fat and other solids as re- 
quired by the New York Milk Commission, then the 
following table will show how the food value of milk 
varies with its composition. 

The range in quality and composition of milk 
that has been placed on the market is even greater 
than that covered by the following table : 



232 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 







Milk Sugar 


Food Value 


Relative Sales 






and 


per 100 


Value. Cents 


No. 


Fat 


Protein 


grams 


per quart 


1 


2.25 


7.8 


52.9 


7.65 


2 


2.75 


7.8 


57.5 


8.32 


3 


3.25 


7.8 


62.2 


9. (Standard) 


4 


3.75 


7.8 


66.9 


9.68 


5 


4.25 


7.8 


71.5 


10.34 


6 


3.25 


5.8 


54.0 


7.81 


7 


3.25 


6.8 


58.1 


8.4 


8 


3.25 


8.8 


66.3 


9.59 


9 


3.25 


9.8 


70.4 


10.18 


10 


1.00 


4.0 


25.7 


3.72 


11 


2.25 


5.8 


44.7 


6.47 


12 


4.25 


9.8 


79.7 


11.53 


13 


7.00 


12.0 


114.3 


16.54 



Sugar, fat and nitrogenous matter are not of 
equal commercial value as food substances. 
Koenig's axiom was that protein, fat and sugar have 
relative money values of 5, 3 and 1. Milk sugar is 
more valuable as a food than cane sugar, as it is 
more easily digested. Milk fat is also a valuable 
and readily assimilated fat, so let us assume (merely 
to illustrate the principle) economic values of 10, 7 
and 3 for the protein, fat and sugar in milk. On 
this basis of computation, the standard New York 
milk (No. 3 as per table) with 3. 25 per cent, of fat, 
0.7 per cent, of ash, 4.6 per cent, of milk sugar and 
3.2 per cent, of protein, with 11.75 per cent, of total 
solids has a monetary value of 



Fat 

Sugar 

Protein 



3.25 x 9.3=30.2 x 7=211.4 
4.6 x 4.1 = 18.9 x 3= 56.7 
3.2 x 4.1 = 13.1 x 10=131.0 



62.2 



MILK 233 

If the milk has a market value of 9 cents per 
quart, then 399.1 monetary units is worth 9 cents, 
or 44.3 units per cent. 

Suppose now milk No. 13, with 6 per cent, of 
sugar, 6 per cent, of protein and 7 per cent, of fat 
was available, then on this basis of computation, the 
monetary value is 

Fat 7.00 x 9.3=65.1 x 7=455.7 

Sugar 6.00 x 4.1=24.6 x 3= 73.8 

Protein 6.00 x 4.1=24.6 x 10=246. 



114.3 775.5 

and 775.5 units divided by 44.3 units for each cent 
of market value, suggests that this milk is worth 
17.5 cents per quart. Milk No. 10 considered 
similarly shows a value of 

Fat 1.00x9.3= 9.3 x 7= 65.1 

Sugar 2.00x4.1= 8.2 x 3= 24.6 

Protein 2.00x4.1= 8.2x10= 82.0 



25.7 171.7 

171.7 "=- 44.3 = 3.87 cents per quart. Research into 
the correct relative economic value of milk constitu- 
ents will probably modify the numerals herein used, 
but the principle used to illustrate the need of pur- 
chasing milk based on its food value, is incon- 
trovertible. It is quite evident that water is not 
worth 9 cents per quart; it can be considered in 
foods as having no market value whatever. Milk 
is about 87 per cent, water and the larger the water 
content of milk the less the value of the milk as a 
food. It is also known that cream sells for many 
times the amount realized from the sale of milk, 
generally around 7 to 1, so a milk containing twice 



234 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

as much fat as another, has a constituent therein 

that commands in the market seven times the price 

of the average substance with its part cream, protein 

and sugar that it is displacing. To obtain a simple, 

practical and easily applied system of grading 

milk by chemical composition, with due respect to 

food value, we might consider only the milk solids 

— or the residue when all the water is evaporated — 

and the fat, which can be readily separated from 

whole milk. Giving milk conforming with the New 

York Milk Commission minimum standard a 

market value of 9 cents per quart, and considering 

fat twice as important in milk as sugar, nitrogenous 

substances and mineral matter, we obtain the 

formula 2 (3.25) + 8.5 = 9 cents, or 1.67 units per 

cent. Assuming the ash or mineral content of all 

milks as 0.7 per cent., then milk No. 13 is 2 (7.) 

26.7 
+ 12.7 = ^ =16 cents per quart and milk No. 

1 6.7 

10 is 2 (1) + 4.7 =— ~~z~ 4 cents per quart. Com- 
paring the three methods of computation we find: 

Relative Values 
(1) (2) (3) 

Based on food Based on simplified 
value and relative formula, which 
Based on Calorific market value generally considers 
Milk No. or food value of constituents both 1 and 2 

Cents per quart Cents per quart Cents per quart 
3 (Standard) 9.0 9.0 9.0 

13 16.54 17.5 16.0 

10 3.72 3.87 4.0 

This gives unusually uniform results and suggests 
the use of the simplified formula and method of 



MILK 



235 











+^> 






























































1 


+•0 






























































§ 


+* 
































§ 






























i 


$1 


■KO 






























































+M 






























































+v 






























































I 








































IV 






























































pi 


IM 






























in 
































<0 


1*0 
































































1^ 


























































in 

i 


S/7LES V/7LUE- CENTS PER QU/7RT 



VI 

Si 

in 



-so 



5» 



of 



Fig. 18. 



236 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

computation. Grades of milk for commercial pur- 
poses could be based on Numerical Zones somewhat 
as follows : 

Relative Sales Value per Quart 
Numeral twice If If If If If 

Fat-j-Solids standard standard standard standard standard 
Grade less Fat Scents 9 cents 10 cents 11 cents 12 cents 



+5 


24.1 to 26 


13.5 


15.0 


17.0 


18.5 


20.0 


+4 


22.1 to 24 


12.5 


14.0 


15.5 


17.0 


18.5 


+3 


20.1 to 22 


11.0 


12.5 


14.0 


15.5 


17.0 


+2 


18.1 to 20 


10.0 


11.5 


13.0 


14.0 


15.0 


+1 


16.1 to 18 


9.0 


10.0 


11.5 


12.5 


13.5 


Stand- 














ard 


14.1 to 16 


8.0 


9.0 


10.0 


11.0 


12.0 


—1 


12.1 to 14 


7.0 


8.0 


9.0 


9.5 


10.5 


—2 


10.1 to 12 


6.0 


6.5 


7.5 


8.0 


9.0 


—3 


8.1 to 10 


5.0 


5.5 


6.0 


6.5 


7.0 


—4 


6.1 to 8 


3.5 


4.0 


4.5 


5.0 


5.5 



Appended is a diagram which graphically shows 
the relation of sales value of milk to its composition, 
varying with different market prices for the average 
or standard commodity. At the present time the 
only grades of milk considered commercially are 
those based upon bacterial content or the sanitary 
condition of milk. At some time in the future all 
milk will be required by the State and Municipali- 
ties to conform to drastic standards in regard ta 
bacterial content, sanitary and hygienic properties. 
The state or cities will absolutely control the milk 
supply of its people just as the municipal authori- 
ties either own or control the water supply. The 
purity of a water supply is vital, but the purity of 
a milk supply is infinitely harder to obtain, is just 
as important for adult life and much more essential 
for the health and well being of the little ones. 
When all milk permitted to be sold in any com- 
munity is pure, fresh, free from all pathogenic 
germs and low in bacterial content, then milk can be 
properly graded and sold, based on its food value 



MILK 237 

and one standard will take the place of the two that 
we are compelled to consider to-day. 

In the meanwhile, milk should be sold with due 
respect to its age, and the value of milk should de- 
preciate with age, as is the case with eggs and other 
perishable foods. Milk of a certain age should be 
condemned whether considered sweet, sour or un- 
dergoing decomposition. Every milk bottle should 
be clearly marked with the date and time when the 
milk was taken from the cow, also the date and time 
of pasteurization, if any, the temperature high and 
low used, and the period of time that this milk was 
subjected to these temperatures before being 
handled for delivery to the trade, and this in addi- 
tion to its grade designation, which should be de- 
termined not only by the bacterial count, but also 
by its composition, calorific value and relative com- 
mercial value as a food drink. 

Certified Milk 

The Medical Milk Commission of Essex County. 
New Jersey, composed of physicians from Newark, 
Orange and Montclair, N. J., was organized April 
13, 1893. This was a pioneer Commission, formed 
with the object of establishing correct clinical 
standards of purity for cow's milk in the public 
interest, of being responsible for periodical inspec- 
tion of dairies under its patronage, of arranging 
for chemical and bacteriological examinations of the 
product and the frequent scrutiny of the stock by 
competent veterinarians. The term "Certified 
Milk" originated with this Commission and the word 
"Certified" was registered in the U. S. Patent Office 
on October 16, 1904, the object being to protect it 
from being degraded by dairymen not working 



238 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

under the direction of a medical commission, organ- 
ized to supervise and influence dairy operations for 
clinical purposes and the public health and well- 
being. 

Dr. Henry L. Coit, of Newark, N. J., who has 
been called "the father of certified milk," gives the 
following definition of certified milk : 

"Milk from a lower animal which has been certi- 
fied by a medical milk commission appointed by a 
medical society, which certification is the monthly 
authorization for the commercial use of the term 
and which certificate is based upon the commission's 
investigation relative to the production of the milk 
showing that it conforms to the standards of quality 
and purity for certified milk and the methods and 
regulations for the production of certified milk, 
which standards of quality consist of a fresh milk, 
unchanged by either heat or cold, less than 24 hours 
old when sold, and which contains not less than 12 
per cent, of total solids, with not less than 3.5 nor 
more than 5.5 per cent, of fat, to which have not 
been added any other food principle, chemical sub- 
stance, or preservative, which standards of purity 
for the milk consists of the lowest possible bacterial 
and dust-dropping content consistent with the 
highest possible practice of dairy hygiene, provided 
that the average numerical contamination is not 
above an average weekly count of 10,000 bacteria 
per cubic centimeter, and from which milk every 
known method has been employed to exclude patho- 
genic micro-organisms, and which standards of 
purity are safeguarded by a medical guaranty of 
the health and personal hygiene of every employee 
handling the milk and by a veterinary guaranty 
that the milk herd will not be a carrier of any dis- 



MILK 239 

ease to those using the milk for food ; which methods 
and regulations for the production of certified milk 
are carried on in conformity with those adopted by 
the American Association of Medical Milk Com- 
missions and are changed from time to time as the 
action of this association modifies the technique for 
the attainment of the standards of quality and 
purity for certified milk growing out of improved 
methods and regulations for its production." 

Ernest Kelly of the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture, investigating in 1913 the extent and prac- 
tice of Medical Milk Commissions, reports that 66 
Commissions had been formed, the most active 
period in this movement being 1906 to 1910, the 
zenith being reached in 1908; from 1 to 20 dairies 
supply each Commission with milk, the amount of 
milk certified by each Commission varying from 75 
to 10,750 quarts per day. It was estimated that the 
total production of the 126 certified dairies aggre- 
gated 25,000 gallons per day and it is interesting to 
note that 20 of the Commissions formed had discon- 
tinued, in 1913, the certification of milk. Kelly esti- 
mated that from 1907 to 1913 the production of certi- 
fied milk increased 300 per cent, but from his statis- 
tics it appears that practically all of the increase was 
realized during the first four years of this period 
and the demand is not materially increasing. "In 
nearly all localities it is a hard fight for the Milk 
Commissions to educate the consumers to the con- 
sumption of certified milk. There are two reasons 
for this : First, it has been found that there is a gen- 
eral apathy among consumers as to the purity of 
their supply. This would hold good as well with 
certified as with market milk. Another reason is 
that the price of certified milk is considerably higher 



240 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

than that of market milk and it is hard to get people 
to pay the extra cost." 

If the consumption of certified milk is increasing, 
the increase is very slow and at the present time only 
about one-half of one per cent, of the total milk 
supply in this country is certified. 

Government statistics compiled in 1913 indicate 
that the price of certified milk to the consumer 
varies in different cities from 10 to 20 cents a quart, 
the average price for all cities being about 14.2 cents. 
The price of ordinary market milk in the same cities 
varies from 5 to 12 cents a quart and averages about 
7.8 cents. Certified milk therefore sells for an 
average of 6.4 cents a quart, (or 82 per cent.) more 
than market milk. As a rule, where the price of 
market milk is low, the price of certified milk is also 
comparatively low, although this does not hold true 
in all cases. 

It was found in 1907 that the average price of 
certified milk was 12% cents a quart, and the 
average price of market milk was 7% cents a quart. 
It will therefore be seen that while the average 
price of market milk has increased about 0.6 of a 
cent a quart during a six-year period, the average 
price of certified milk has increased about 2 cents 
a quart. And yet there are Milk Commissions who 
report that the demand for certified milk is good 
but dairymen are not willing to supply it. The 
states of New York, New Jersey, Kentucky, Cali- 
fornia and Michigan have passed laws regulating 
the sale of certified milk thus protecting and legal- 
izing the use of the term "certified," a word which 
notwithstanding its registration is being abused in 
the trade. We are told by government investi- 
gators that there are a few dairymen who sell their 



MILK 241 

product under the name of "certified milk" who 
have no connection with milk commissions. These, 
in some cases, certify to their own product, and in 
others, samples are sent to a State experiment sta- 
tion or to some local chemist or bacteriologist for 
examination. Some dairymen in this class supply 
a very creditable product. There are others whose 
milk is of only ordinary quality. The samples for 
analysis are usually taken by the dairyman himself 
from milk fresh from the cow and immediately iced 
and sent to the analyst. The analyst reports his 
results and the dairyman uses them to advertise his 
product. This cannot be looked upon as anything 
but a deception, as the consumer is given to under- 
stand that this is the analysis of the milk as it 
is delivered to him daily. It is only when scien- 
tific milk commissions have been organized and a 
plan of education has been started to create a de- 
mand for sanitary milk particularly designed for 
infant feeding, that there arises any danger of an 
impure milk being put on the market under such a 
label. It is manifestly unfair, therefore, that after 
a commission, serving in the interest of the public, 
has created a feeling that "certified" milk means a 
safe, clean milk for infant feeding, some unprin- 
cipled dairyman should be able to prey on the ignor- 
ance of the public and supply an unsafe milk at a 
high price. Steps should be taken by the milk com- 
missions or by the city or State officers to prevent 
such practices. Where milk is an article of inter- 
state commerce, the national pure-food law covers 
misrepresentations of this character. 

No milk should be permitted to be sold as certi- 
fied milk unless the container shall be clearly 
marked with the name and address of the Com- 



242 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

mission certifying it and no Commission should be 
permitted to supervise the production of milk and 
pass upon its quality unless it be an incorporated 
body of scientific, unbiased men, authorized by the 
State and accepted or endorsed by the community; 
these men should be duly qualified by character and 
training to acceptably perform their important 
tasks in the interest of public health and they should 
be paid a nominal sum for their services by the com- 
munity and dairies which they serve. 

Milk Commissions should not be under the con- 
trol of National, State, County or City Medical 
Societies or Associations. The New York State 
law in regard to certified milk requires that the 
Milk Commission be "appointed by a County 
Medical Society, organized under and chartered by 
the Medical Society of the State of New York." 
This is unfortunate, for knowledge and conscien- 
tiousness are the prime essentials of qualification 
and not professional endorsement by any exclusive 
body. There are some practicing physicians, such 
as Dr. Coit, of Newark, N. J., who have done 
splendid work in the crusade for safe milk, but the 
majority of general practitioners, whereas they 
may in a measure appreciate the importance of a 
sanitary and wholesome milk supply, are apt to be 
technically or practically unfitted to have control 
over the inspection and certification of the milk 
consumed by the community in which they reside. 
They are generally incompetent to advise any 
dairymen in regard to practical problems and are 
almost invariably incapable of making scientific in- 
vestigations or analyses themselves or of devising 
ways and means of obtaining reliable comparative 
results economically and promptly. The real work 



MILK 243 

that has been done in the past, in the study of milk, 
has been performed by chemists, bacteriologists, 
analysts, college professors, sanitary and hygiene 
engineers and technically trained dairymen and 
agriculturists and the actual practical supervision 
of dairies and the products of dairies will have to 
be in the hands of chemists, bacteriologists, analysts, 
veterinarians and engineers if the people are to be 
efficiently and intelligently served. The New York 
Milk Commission was composed of competent men 
of national reputation, eminently fitted to perform 
the task intrusted to them. This Commission of 
17 men consisted of 5 chemists, 6 professors, most 
of whom were chemists and bacteriologists, 1 con- 
sulting sanitarian and 5 health officers from various 
parts of the country — but no general practitioners. 
The badge M.D. does not make a man any more 
fitted to solve a milk problem than the label M.E. 
and as a general proposition both the water and the 
milk supply of any community might be better en- 
trusted to trained engineers and chemists than to 
physicians. 

The Medical Milk Associations which certify 
milk, have no rigid national standard and milk may 
be certified in one locality carrying 100,000 bac- 
teria per c.c, whereas, in another community the 
maximum permitted is 10,000. The government 
investigations of 1913 showed that certified milk 
had a fat content varying from 3.2 to 6 per cent., 
the average being 4.3 per cent, for the country; 
the total solids varied from 11.74 to 14.5 per cent, 
with an average of 13 per cent. In regard to the age 
of certified milk when delivered, it was found that 
whereas some milk was delivered to the consumer 
when 6 hours old, other milk was 48 hours old when 



244 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

it reached the market; the average age when de- 
livered was 20 hours. As some milk will not be 
used until 24 hours after its delivery, it is evident 
that some certified milk is 3 days old when con- 
sumed. 

As would naturally be expected, certified milk, 
if it conforms with low bacterial content require- 
ments, will keep sweet for a long time. The theory 
that clean milk should possess good keeping quali- 
ties works out in practice. Kelly says that certified 
milk of an unusual quality has been taken on an 
ocean voyage and not only brought back in good 
condition but kept sweet until 30 days old. In fact, 
it is now a common practice for people when cross- 
ing the water or taking a long land journey with in- 
fants to take several small cases of a special grade 
of certified milk with them. They are then reason- 
ably sure of having a supply of sweet milk for 
several days. 

A number of certified milk dairies in the United 
States sent exhibits of milk to the Paris Exposition 
in 1900. Most of this special milk kept perfectly 
sweet for two weeks and in some instances 18 days 
after being bottled. Hermetically sealed bottles 
were used and the milk was, of course, most care- 
fully packed in ice for shipment. 

The milk and cream contests at the National 
Dairy Show in recent years have demonstrated the 
remarkable keeping qualities of specially prepared 
or selected certified milk. Some of the samples 
submitted have reached Chicago from the States of 
Washington and California. Though these samples 
have some of them been over a week old when 
plated, they have shown remarkably low bacterial 
counts. After this milk has been judged it has 



MILK 245 

been kept in cold storage, and some has been 
consumed over two weeks after its production, 
when it was found quite palatable. It is not 
advisable, however, to use old milk even though 
it may taste sweet. Serious consequences may re- 
sult due to bacterial growth which cannot be de- 
tected in the flavor of the milk. 

The knowledge that good certified milk will keep 
for a long period of time has caused much trouble 
and distress in recent years and has been responsible 
for much indifference on the part of milk handlers, 
hotels, ship and train stewards, etc., in regard to 
the age of milk served their patrons as wholesome 
certified milk. 

Milk with extremely low initial lactic acid bac- 
terial content, if kept on ice, may act somewhat like 
pasteurized milk for a certain period of time; it 
may show no indication of souring, due to the ap- 
parent non-activity of lactic acid bacteria, but other 
micro-organisms may thrive therein and the milk 
though sweet become unwholesome and unfit for 
consumption. Certified, pasteurized or raw milk 
should be consumed when fresh and all old milk is 
dangerous no matter what it is called and no matter 
what its treatment may have been. City ordi- 
nances or state laws should be enacted prohibiting 
any dairyman, dealer, hotel, railroad or steamship 
company selling to any customer or patron milk, 
whether certified or not, that is over 72 hours old. 
The practice of dining car stewards taking on milk 
at one end of their run when they could obtain 
equally good milk at either end, is inspired by 
ignorance but is nevertheless a crime against the 
little travellers whose parents are deluded into a 
sense of false security by the words "certified milk." 



246 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

There is a possibility that the use of certified 
milk may at times do positive harm because of the 
confidence that the name or designation inspires 
in the lay mind. The purchaser pays more for the 
milk and knows that it has been obtained under 
sanitary conditions. He imagines that he is ob- 
taining guaranteed milk certified as being pure, 
wholesome and safe — which is not so. No raw milk, 
whether certified or not, can be guaranteed as be- 
ing free from disease germs or other contamination. 
The certifying Commission can certify only as to 
the general condition of the dairy that produced the 
milk but never to any particular bottle of milk or 
day's milking. It sometimes happens that certified 
milk is of no better character than ordinary raw 
market milk, sometimes it is not as good and epi- 
demics have been caused by certified milk. The ex- 
clusive use in the home and when traveling may lull 
one into a false sense of security and herein lies one 
of the dangers of certified milk, which can never 
mean under the present existing modus operandi, 
guaranteed and tested safe milk. Certified milk is 
on the average far safer, cleaner and purer than 
raw market milk, for it is the product of dairies 
which pay attention to the laws of hygiene and 
which have better kept and healthier cows, cleaner 
stables, covered milk pails, more careful cleansing 
of utensils, cleaner and healthier dairymen, etc., 
and every farmer who pays attention to the require- 
ments of milk commissions in order to obtain a 
certificate from such a Board must of necessity pro- 
duce an improved grade of product. Fine, modern, 
clean cow barns will not, of themselves, result in 
sanitary milk, for the human element is of prime 
importance and North's experiments, which re- 



MILK 247 

duced the bacterial count of milk from 5,000,000 
to 800 by merely changing the milkmen, have 
opened up a wide field for thought and investiga- 
tion. Referring to his Pennsylvania tests Dr. 
Charles E. North, the noted sanitarian has said: 

"After I had trained some milkman how to milk I 
was challenged by folk in Pennsylvania to prove that the 
guilt lies with the milkman. I offered to bring in a travel- 
ing army of milkmen, take over a lot of farms, operate 
them myself and get pure milk. 

"The farms were at Kelton, Pa. The farmers wanted 
to know what they were to do— build new barns, buy 
disinfectant, put in new cooling plants or what. I said 
they were to do nothing at all. I moved my men in at 
noon, after the old milking system had been tested for a 
week for bacteria on each farm. One of my men 
told me he was sure he was a failure because the farmer 
whom he displaced insisted on sweeping a lot around the 
barn while he milked. Sure enough he was. His bac- 
teria count was up to 60,000, but even at that it was 
better by 3,550,000 than the farmer he displaced. 

"Boiling hot water did it. All my men brought with 
them was a milk bucket each, the bucket built with a 
small mouth no bigger than that with which the calf has 
always obtained Grade A milk. Then they scalded in 
boiling water everything connected with the milking pro- 
cess. They insisted on quiet in the barns and freedom 
from feeding even, as this sent clouds of dust into the 
air. 

"The bacteria count in the morning on the first farm 
was 1,830,000. My milkman reduced it at night to 3,300. 
The bacteria count in the morning on another farm was 
5,000,000. My milkman reduced it to 4,100. On a third 
farm the count in the morning was 4,000,000 and at night 
it was 1,600. The lowest any of the unskilled milkmen 
ran was 1,450,000. The highest any of my milkmen 
ran was 7,000, with the one exception where the anxious 
farm owner interfered and forced a count of 60,000 for 
his pains with the dust-raising broom." 

The results attained by these interesting tests 
should not, however, cause any lessening of sani- 
tary supervision of cow barns, cattle, water, uten- 
sils, etc., for the Government reports show that 
94.5 per cent, of the milk and milk product plants 
in this country are unsanitary and much of their 
product is "filthy, disease-breeding and unfit for 
human consumption." 



248 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

It is imperative that business principles be closely 
applied in the production of sanitary milk so that 
the price may be kept as low as possible to the con- 
sumer and still let the dairymen operate at a profit. 
Intelligence and care should be displayed by sani- 
tary milk producers to the economic feature of their 
business as well as to the sanitary side. Kelley's 
Certified Milk Investigation of 1913 showed that 
one-half of the producers of certified milk claimed 
that the business was profitable, the other half 
affirming that notwithstanding the increased price 
obtained, it was unprofitable. There is something 
radically wrong when one dairy produces certified 
milk and sells at 12 cents per quart, making an 
acknowledged good profit and another dairy pro- 
ducing similar milk (and no better) claims that the 
business is unprofitable when they obtained 20 cents 
per quart — or 67 per cent, increased price — for 
their product. Business men, commerical analysts 
and efficiency engineers as well as sanitarians, bac- 
teriologists, chemists and physicians are apparently 
needed on Milk Boards if the best interests of the 
people are to be served, for the economic phase 
must not be permitted to handicap, through ignor- 
ance and unscientific manufacturing and business 
methods, the progress of human well-being. 
Figures prepared by the U. S. Dept. of Agri- 
culture show the great possibility for economic im- 
provements in certified milk distribution. One 
dairyman received only 6.5 cents per quart for his 
milk, but the consumers paid 12.5 cents; the freight 
was 1 cent and the middlemen obtained 5 cents per 
quart for distribution and profit in handling. Many 
cases are reported where the distributor obtained 3 
to 5 cents per quart for his services. The testimony 



MILK 249 

before the Wicks Legislative Committee of New 
York State, July, 1916, brought out the fact that a 
farmer received 8 cents per quart for milk which 
was sold by New York dealers for 15 cents. An- 
other received 6 cents per quart for milk which cost 
him 3.2 cents, and it was sold in New York for 10 
cents. The whole question of milk distribution is 
impregnated with economic possibilities and the 
day may come when municipal authorities will dic- 
tate or control milk routes so that instead of seeing 
eight milk wagons competing for the milk business 
in one street of a small city, there will be one 
channel of delivery just as there is one water supply 
and one medium for postal delivery. When all 
milk is produced under drastic inspection and rigid 
laws and sold based on its food value and this only 
when fresh and wholesome, all milk will be sani- 
tary and truly "certified"; the product of dairymen 
being standardized, the consumer will be quite will- 
ing to obtain standard milk from A or B and each 
will have a milk route with the same number of 
customers as at present, located in from a half to 
one-twentieth of the area now daily traversed. 
Distributing companies under municipal control 
would be a still greater improvement, for the dairy- 
man would simply deliver his milk to the distribut- 
ing depots where it would be graded for commercial 
value and fat content. Thus would a careful 
mother be enabled to specify and buy truly certified 
milk of a certain required fat content, not too rich 
with cream to upset the digestion of her little one, 
and in paying for such milk she would be charged 
less than the standard price instead of far more, as 
is the case at present. There is no way now of 



250 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

such a mother knowing exactly the composition of 
the milk that she is buying. 

The Milk Commissions of the country composed 
exclusively of physicians have been federated into 
a National Association known as the American 
Association of Medical Milk Commissioners. It is 
stated that the fundamental object of this Associa- 
tion is to bring about the uniformity of standards 
and their perfection — a worthy object. Each 
Milk Commission organized, however, must be "ap- 
pointed by a representative Medical Society and 
act under its auspices and for it." The physicians 
apparently appreciate their inability to handle this 
matter of themselves, for the physicians, i. e., the 
Medical Milk Commissioners who are members of 
a Medical Society "should designate a veterinarian, 
a physician, a chemist and a bacteriologist to en- 
force its methods and standards." The physicians 
seek to control, but others will do most of the work. 
The veterinary, a most worthy and important pro- 
fessional specialist, who should have supervision 
over animal health and general welfare is sub- 
ordinated to the physicians, but being in the strata 
of professional greatness immediately below that 
of the human doctor, he is held responsible by the 
physicians for the hygiene and sanitation of the 
dairy, i. e., ventilation, purity of water supply, 
cleanliness of dairymen, cleaning and sterilizing of 
utensils, etc., work for which he is not by training 
fitted. The medical officer "shall be a physician in 
good standing and authorized by law to practice 
medicine." He should see that "no person shall be 
employed who has not been vaccinated recently." 
This will probably be followed later by require- 
ments that each worker in the cow barns and dairv 



MILK 251 

must be periodically subjected to the injection of 
serums for "every ill to which mortal man is heir," 
for doctors must live, fads are revered and hobbies 
are ridden to death. Medicine was founded on 
superstition and the power of suggestion, and to-day 
these forces still hold sway. Notwithstanding the 
splendid men found in the medical profession and 
the great benefactors to humanity among the ranks 
of the conscientious physicians and surgeons, the 
certification of milk should not be left to any 
Medical Society, or the control of any food or 
other needed and necessary commodity placed in 
the hands of an exclusive professional society or 
organized body of men banded together for their 
mutual protection and benefit. The clannishness 
and shielding "professional etiquette" of doctors are 
proverbial. The world's problems need to be 
handled by science ; conditions should be probed by 
analysts and the cry of the hour is for truth, for 
cold immutable facts on which the structure of pro- 
gress for the well being of society can alone 
eternally rest. 

Inspected Milk 

Several of the medical milk commissions are 
supervising and granting their official approval to 
the production of a special grade of milk which is 
termed "inspected milk." This milk does not con- 
form to all the requirements for certified milk but 
is relatively of a fairly good quality and is probably 
much safer than the ordinary market milk of most 
cities. It is usually demanded that the cows kept for 
the production of this milk be free from tubercu- 
losis and that the bacterial count be under 100,000 
to the cubic centimeter. 



252 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Inspected milk is a sort of second grade certified 
milk, and the term is supposed to be limited to 
comparatively clean raw milk from healthy cows, 
which are required to be fed, watered, housed and 
milked under good conditions but not equal to those 
prescribed by the Milk Commission for certified 
milk. It is expected that all persons who come in 
contact with the milk must exercise cleanliness and 
be free from any disease liable to be conveyed by 
the milk. The milk is generally delivered in steril- 
ized containers and is supposed to be kept at a 
temperature of not more than 50° F until it reaches 
the consumer. The Milk Commissions, in officially 
endorsing a grade of milk not worthy to be rated 
as certified milk, maintain that by so doing they 
are inaugurating a school for dairymen and that 
producers of inspected milk will ultimately be 
trained to produce certified milk. The principal 
point of difference between inspected and certified 
milk is the bacterial count. Bacteria in milk are 
primarily due to filth, unsanitary surroundings and 
methods and lack of cleanliness and decency on the 
part of the operatives. If a Milk Commission re- 
quire not more than 10,000 bacterial count for certi- 
fied milk and 100,000 bacteria per c.c. for inspected 
milk, of the same age and temperature treatment, 
then they are willing to permit ten times as much 
product of filth and contamination in inspected 
milk as in certified milk, whereas, as a matter of 
fact any milk rightly obtained, under proper sani- 
tary surroundings and handled in harmony with 
sanitary laws by careful, cleanly and healthy people, 
should never show more than 5,000 bacteria per c.c. 
when delivered to the consumer or one-half of the 



MILK 253 

bacterial content permitted by the most drastic of 
the Medical Milk Associations. Inspected milk 
does harm inasmuch as it makes some people be- 
lieve that it means the best milk obtainable under 
rigid requirements and the supervision of reputable 
authorities, whereas, in reality it means practically 
nothing, as barn, cow and employee inspection is 
perfunctory and milk analysis means but a very 
occasional bacteriological test and that probably on 
selected milk. Legal steps should be taken to pre- 
vent the indiscriminate use of the English language 
by Medical Milk Associations, dairymen and 
others; for such terms as "Inspected Milk" deceive 
and in conveying an absolutely erroneous impres- 
sion, do positive harm to the customers and build up 
(generally under the protection of a medical milk 
commission) a lucrative business for an unscru- 
pulous dairyman who is too indifferent to the public 
good to adopt sane, sanitary and hygienic measures 
in the handling of his cows and the production of 
milk. Or else the dairyman is not willing to ice his 
milk and deliver it fresh and regularly ; in this case 
a high bacterial count will be in evidence, due to age 
and improper treatment after milking. If the milk 
is "inspected milk" a milk commission stands 
sponsor for a dairyman who violates the first prin- 
ciples of milk treatment in storage, transportation 
and distribution. 

The New York Milk Committee apparently ap- 
preciated this fact, for they declined to consider 
any grades of milk except the best procurable raw 
milk, their B and C grade having to be pasteurized 
and the bacterial count limited to a maximum of 
50,000 per c.c. when delivered to the consumer. 



254 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Mothers' Feeding and Infants' Milk Depots 

The increasing complexity of community life, 
with its artificialness and attendant evils, has had a 
pronounced influence in the reduction of natural 
maternal feeding of infants and at the same time 
has rendered, in our large cities and congested dis- 
tricts, a suitable supply of wholesome substitute 
food more difficult to obtain. The problem to-day 
for the proper feeding of infants is two-fold: First, 
mothers should be taught that there is no substitute 
for mother's milk even approaching in goodness, 
suitability and safety that which nature has decreed 
should be used for the nourishment and develop- 
ment of the young. There is no form of animal 
milk with the same composition as mother's milk, 
as there is no form of animal life similar to that of 
man. Any milk fed direct from the breast of a 
healthy female mammal to her offspring is sterile, 
but milk taken artificially, handled, subjected di- 
rectly and unnaturally to the influence of atmos- 
phere, temperature, transportation, etc., cannot be 
sterile ; such milk is a magnetic feeding medium for 
bacteria and must of necessity ever be a menace to 
the health of the young, especially when used 
during warm weather, i. e. during conditions favor- 
able to the rapid development and multiplication 
of bacterial life. Any mother who is physically 
fitted to nurse and feed her child at the breast and 
does not do so, is committing a crime against an 
innocent child, violating universal law, perpetrat- 
ing an outrage against society and setting at naught 
the well being of the race. Educational measures 
are therefore demanded for the restoration of the 
function of the female breast. 



MILK 255 

Second, For the children of mothers physically 
incapable of nursing their offspring at the breast, 
and for children of mothers who refuse to assume 
the responsibility and natural duties of mother- 
hood, it is necessary that milk from some other 
mammal be obtained that is relatively pure and 
wholesome and that can, to a great degree, be made 
adaptable. The only source of supply available in 
quantity to-day in this country, is the domesticated 
cow, and although there may be milks that are a 
better substitute for human milk than is cow's milk, 
we are compelled for the present to use cow's milk 
or some modification of natural cow's milk when- 
ever mother's milk is not available for the feeding 
of an infant. A wholesome supply of cow's milk is 
of vital importance for children deprived of nature's 
food and the reduction of infant mortality in those 
sections of the country that have inaugurated a 
campaign of sanitary milk for children, is most 
striking. The greatest "Slaughter of the Inno- 
cents" in the history of all peoples, has been the 
persistent diabolical and wanton destruction of in- 
fants and young children from the use of dirty, old, 
germ-laden cow's milk. When such milk is fed to 
young infants who should receive their nourishment 
at the human breast, the mortality is frightful, but 
children who have graduated from the breast and 
use cow's milk with other substances as a food, are 
likewise peculiarly susceptible to disease lurking in 
unsanitary and old milk; the younger the child, 
however, the greater is its physical sensitiveness 
and vulnerability. Dr. Coit, when he formulated 
his plan for the production of a certified milk for 
clinical purposes, was inspired by the meritorious 
determination that something constructive must 



256 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

be done to save the lives of innocent babies. The 
same general worthy motive gave birth to the Milk 
Dispensary, the "goutte de lait" which sprang into 
existence, not to give good milk at a high price to the 
children of careful parents who can afford to pay 
well for it, but to educate the poor and supply milk 
that will reduce the excessive infant mortality that 
"civilized" conditions and an artificial mode of life 
have inflicted upon the families of the poor. The 
Infants' Milk Depots had for their primary object 
the encouragement of maternal feeding and when 
this was impossible, they sought to supply a safe 
milk to meet the peculiar need of the infant. The 
first institution of this character in the United 
States was opened by Dr. Koplik at the Eastern 
Dispensary, New York; but the greatest work 
among the poor, to overcome milk evils, has been 
performed by Nathan Straus whose splendid efforts 
and advocacy of pasteurization to reduce the 
danger of infection from dirty milk, met with the 
pronounced and organized opposition from physi- 
cians and medical associations — a not unusual ex- 
perience for progressive laymen. It is interesting 
to note that Straus has long since been vindicated 
in his fight with the medical profession and he did 
splendid, noble work saving the lives of babies when 
physicians were theorizing and arguing that he was 
threatening the ultimate well-being and vitality of 
the poor peoples, whose children's lives he positively 
saved. Some Infants' Milk Depots pasteurize milk 
and some strive to obtain sanitary raw milk and 
modify it to suit the needs of the young members 
of the human family. The following formulae are 
in use at the Straus Milk Depots in New York; 



MILK 257 





1 


2 


3 


4 


5 




ounce 


ounces 


ounces 


ounces 


ounces 


Milk, 


96 


64 


64 


21 1/3 


16 


Cream (16%) 


— 


— 


— 


10 2/3 


4 


Lime Water, 


— 


4 


! 


4 


6 


Oat Water, 


32 


— 





— i 


— 


Filtered Water, 


— 


60 





92 


102 


Barley Water, 


— 


— 


64 


— 


— 


Cane Sugar, 


2.5 


— 


4 


— 


— 


Milk Sugar, 


— 


6 


— 


6 1/2 


6 


Table Salt, 


0.083 


— 


30 grs. 


— 


— 



Most of the large cities in the United States have 
Infant Milk Depots and it is the consensus of 
opinion of those interested in the work, that the re- 
sults have been exceedingly beneficial. The official 
report of J. W. Kerr of the Public Health Service, 
bearing upon Infants Milk Depots established in 
American cities, is most interesting and his con- 
clusions and recommendations are sound: 

"There is great necessity for a wider extension 
of this movement, in order that its benefits may be 
felt in every congested center of population in the 
United States. In many of these areas the un- 
sanitary conditions surrounding the lives of infants 
are a menace to the State. Diffusion of knowledge 
with respect to all that pertains to infant hygiene 
is therefore demanded. Mothers should be en- 
couraged in every possible way to nurse their in- 
fants, regardless of financial or social status. When 
breast feeding is clearly impossible, a pure supply 
of cow's milk, modified to meet the special needs of 
the infant, should be rendered available for both 
rich and poor. At the same time mothers should be 
instructed regarding the special requirements neces- 
sary to successful artificial feeding, including the 



258 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

care and administration of milk in the home. 
Private philanthropy has led the way. The public, 
through its official representatives, should assume 
its share of responsibility, both because of economic 
and sanitary considerations, and provide infants' 
milk depots for improving the physical well-being 
of the children who are destined to become the 
active producing members of the community of the 
future." 

Municipal authorities are ever backward in ex- 
pending money to safeguard health. Were it not 
for private philanthropy and courageous business 
men with vision and initiative, but little would ever 
have been done in this world in the practical ap- 
plication of the truths revealed to men by scientists 
and geniuses. As an illustration of the effect on 
infant mortality due to careful control of the milk 
supply of a modern city of moderate size, it is in- 
teresting to compare the summer death rate of chil- 
dren in the City of Rochester, N. Y., for two nine- 
year periods, one without milk depots and the other 
with : 

INFANT MORTALITY JULY AND AUGUST 

Percentage of 
Increased 
Mortality 
During 
Years Years period Milk 

1888-1896 1897-1905 Depots were 
No Depots With Depots not in use 
Death of infants under 

one year of age, 1638 761 115.2 

Death of children 1 to 5 

years of age, 361 241 49.8 

Total deaths under 5 

years of age, 1999 1002 99.5 



MILK 259 

The average population of Rochester during the 
period 1888-1896 was 138,000 and during the next 
nine-year period, 170,000, an increase of over 23 
per cent. Considering the increase in population, 
mortality statistics show that 1,460 lives of chil- 
dren under 5 years of age were saved in this one 
city during two summer months of each of the nine 
years, due to intelligent application of scientific 
principles in milk preparation for infant feeding. 

This same ratio of children's mortality reduction 
applied to the entire United States, would repre- 
sent about 100,000 children saved during July and 
August of each year — a truly astounding figure. 

It is now well established that the large majority 
of infantile deaths is caused by gastro-intestinal 
diseases. Further, that this great fatality occurs 
especially among artificially raised infants, and 
finally the vast majority of cases and deaths from 
bowel trouble in children occur during the warm 
summer months. The infant mortality in all coun- 
tries is outrageously high. That this condition is 
unnecessary is proven by the fact that infants who 
are well and scientifically cared for show a rela- 
tively low mortality. Defective feeding is the active 
cause of high infant mortality, while heat, humidity 
and unsanitary environment are contributary 
causes. It should be remembered that the normal 
intestinal mucous membranes are permeable to 
bacteria, and more so during the period of infancy 
than of later life. Hence one of the great dangers 
of using bacteria-laden milk. While the factors in- 
volved in this tragic condition are numerous, they 
depend primarily upon the activity of micro-organ- 
isms. Freeman believes that the decline in the in- 
fant mortality in the United States during the last 



260 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

ten years, and especially in New York City, is due 
for the most part to the decline in mortality from 
summer diarrhoea, and states "that the general 
adoption of pasteurized and sterilized milk for in- 
fant feeding is by far the most important agency." 
Park and Holt, as a result of exhaustive investi- 
gation in the tenement districts and institutions ot 
New York, have said: "The number of bacteria 
which may accumulate before milk becomes notice- 
ably harmful to the average infant in summer, differs 
with the nature of the bacteria present, the age of the 
milk and the temperature at which it has been kept. 
When milk is taken raw, the fewer bacteria present, 
the better are the results. Of the usual varieties 
over 1,000,000 bacteria per c. c. are certainly dele- 
terious to the average infant." And yet, through 
ignorance and stupidity, little children continue to 
be fed with old dirty milk with a bacterial content 
ten, twenty and even over one hundred times as 
great as that which scientific research has proved 
to be dangerous to infant health and life. In 1905 
there were deaths within the United States registra- 
tion area equivalent to 1.62 per cent, of the popula- 
tion, and of these 19.4 per cent., or approximately 
one-fifth, were among infants less than one year of 
age. Diarrhoea and summer complaint caused the 
death of 37.5 per cent of these children. On this basis 
to-day of 100,000,000 total inhabitants, this would 
mean 117,000 deaths per annum of infants under 
one year of age, due to erroneous summer feeding, 
and 312,000 total deaths per annum of such babies, 
a large percentage of which could be attributed to 
faulty milk supply, unpardonable ignorance and in- 
excusable hygienic and sanitary conditions. During 
the years 1892-1897, in Paris and the cities of 



MILK 261 

France, with populations exceeding 30,000, the 
deaths from diarrhoea by months per 1,000 total 
deaths of infants under one year of age were as 
follows : 

January, 212.8 May, 303.1 September, 537.7 

February, 211.1 June, 428.4 October, 431.5 

March, 224.8 July, 587.1 November, 304.6 

April, 254.8 August, 606.4 December, 235.9 

In Paris the deaths from this cause averaged 
880.3 per 1,000 for six years and in 11 other large 
French cities the average was 420.5. 

It is seen from the above table that, though the 
months of June, July, August, September and 
October present the most deplorable proportion of 
deaths from diarrhoea, this cause is not negligible 
in autumn and winter. 

In Germany, according to Behring, of every 
1,000 children born alive 235 succumb during the 
first year of life. Only 510 out of 1,000 males born 
attain manhood. Not more than one-third of those 
reaching maturity, or 17 per cent, of the born males, 
are found to be physically fit for military service. 
These sad facts Behring attributes very largely to 
the ulterior effects of infection derived in infancy 
from milk. 

During the first year of its life, a child consumes 
about 500 quarts of milk, and if this enormous 
quantity is obtained from cows, there is a strong 
possibility that some of it will be unsanitary and 
much of it unscientifically handled ; and there is also 
the possibility of occasional contamination and in- 
fection; therefore, the risk accompanying the arti- 
ficial feeding of infants and the milk-food supply 
of older children is palpably great. Newsholme's 



262 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

m/rr/vE moRr/fi/n /w/n mstro /mest/ml 

D/S£ffSE/A/B/l£/?ST-££D /?W BOmEFEO /A/F/7N75 

l£SSmA/ON£ W9ff0fASEMfWfi/SBYW££jrsmWt/W0t/rM£HT/J?£Y&fi 




20 40 so 8Q /oo /20 /<*o (£Q 
MORT/tL/TY SC/9LE 

BRE/tST FED /A/E/9A/TS BB BOniE* FED //VF/fAfTB HI 

Fig. 19. 



MILK 263 

investigations indicate that the mortality among 
breast-fed babies is only one-tenth that of artificially 
fed infants. Tyson states that of all infants who 
die in England in the first year of life, 75 per cent, 
have been fed with cow's milk or other artificial 
foods. Sandilands found that in Brighton, Eng- 
land, only 16 per cent, of children dying of intes- 
tinal troubles, under 9 months old, were breast-fed. 
In 1898 statistics show that the number of deaths 
of artificially fed infants in Paris was double that 
of breast-fed babies at all times during the year and 
in August, the mortality was in the ratio of 8 to 1. 
Turner has stated that during the summer months 
at Brisbane, Australia, more than one-half of the 
bottle-fed babies die. 

There is some excuse for working women putting 
their children on the bottle early in life in order that 
they may again go to work, if such work away from 
the home is necessary for the support of their fam- 
ilies; but there is no excuse for women who do not 
have to work for a living and who do or should take 
charge of their household and who are physically 
capable of suckling their offspring, neglecting, be- 
cause of so-called social demands and a life of ease, 
to give their progeny the food that nature ordained 
they should have to nurture and develop them. 
There is a regrettable high infant mortality rate in 
the manufacturing towns where married women 
work in factories. Reid found that in five cities 
where 12 per cent, or over of the married women 
were factory workers, the infantile mortality was 
198 per 1,000; in thirteen cities where this percent- 
age of employed mothers was between 6 to 12, the 
mortality rate of children was 156, and in 8 cities 
where the percentage of working mothers was under 



264 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

6, the infantile mortality was 149. The same gen- 
eral results were shown by Harrington in an inves- 
tigation of the mill towns of New England. 

If a woman leads an ordinary life and receives 
intelligent care during the period of parturition and 
confinement, there is no reason why, in the vast 
majority of cases, she cannot suckle her young off- 
spring. The so-called nervous temperament of the 
average society woman is no excuse for depriving a 
child of its legitimate right and the normal func- 
tioning of the lactic organs of a woman make for 
health and natural living. Some poor women are 
driven for economic reasons to sacrifice the health of 
their children and their own health, but there is no 
excuse for women in moderate or comfortable cir- 
cumstances, or for those living in luxury, handi- 
capping their children in order to give themselves 
more freedom of action and thus deliberately side- 
step what is to them but a disagreeable maternal 
responsibility which they are anxious to avoid. 

Madame Dluski, in a thesis delivered at the Bau- 
delocque Clinic, Paris, expresses the opinion that 
among 100 healthy women, when the necessary 
conditions of alimentation and repose are present, 
99 are actually able to nurse their offspring. She 
concludes that women, almost without exception, 
can nurse their babes; that four-fifths of mothers 
can do so from the beginning of lactation; that 
nearly all can do so after a longer or shorter time, 
and that absolute agalactia does not exist. Yet, 
despite all efforts to promote the practice of 
breast-feeding, a great proportion of infants are 
bottle fed. Indeed the practice of feeding infants 
with the milk of animals (goats and cows) is of 
great antiquity — the Greeks and Scythians had re- 



MILK 265 

course to it — but the pernicious practice is known to 
have greatly increased in modern times. 

Von Bunge's statistics, gathered from all parts 
of Europe, indicated that 75 per cent, of women 
could nurse their children if they would. Budin 
tells us that 448 out of 557 women who attended a 
Parisian hospital were able to nurse their children. 
In France and Italy rooms are set apart in fac- 
tories where working women can nurse their babies 
at certain hours, and in Italy the law compels each 
industrial establishment employing 50 or more 
women to furnish suitable rooms for this purpose. 

Rosenau has said : 

"Prepare cow's milk as we may, we can not shut 
our eyes to the fact that it is out of the question to 
anticipate such good results from artificial feeding 
as from breast feeding. It is well known that the 
lowest death rate for the first year of life is shown 
among those infants who are fed on good human 
breast milk. 

"It is the milk of other animals, usually the cow, 
which directly or indirectly kills the greatest num- 
ber of infants. All are agreed that if a child must 
be artificially fed it is best to use fresh, pure milk; 
but when we consider that thousands of infants in 
our large cities must depend upon the milk of a 
cow many miles away, we are confronted with a 
difficulty not readily overcome. Nature did not in- 
tend the young of one species to be raised upon the 
milk of another, much less did it intend that milk 
to be dirty, stale, and bacteria-laden. We have 
unanimous testimony that such milk, especially in 
the heated months of summer, is the cause directly 
or indirectly of the excessive infant morbidity and 
mortality. 



266 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

"The average city market milk that has already 
deteriorated in quality can not be revivified. No 
known process will make bad milk good milk; but 
further fermentation and putrefaction in the milk 
can be stopped, and pathogenic organisms killed, 
by heating it to 60 degrees C. for twenty minutes. 
Bad milk, whether heated or unheated, is unfit for 
infant feeding, but if infants must depend upon old 
dirty and uncared for milk it would be much better, 
especially in the summer months, to practice pas- 
teurization, in spite of its alleged disadvantages. 

"The quantity of certified or clean milk in any 
community is but a drop in the bucket, and until 
health officers can assure a good quality of milk the 
only protection we have is the expedient of heat- 
ing it. 

"It is by no means claimed that heated milk is the 
ideal to be attained. On the contrary, we want 
good, fresh milk that needs no heating. At present 
it is exceedingly difficult to obtain such milk in our 
large cities, and anyone who investigates the matter 
carefully will soon convince himself that it will be 
many years before this is possible and only after a 
revolution of the milk industry. In the meantime 
we must protect ourselves." 

This protection will be best obtained by teaching 
healthy mothers, physically capable of nursing 
their children, to do their natural duty for the good 
of the helpless little ones, and to demand of the 
state or city that milk be produced and sold under 
scientific inspection when fresh, wholesome and 
comparatively low in bacterial count, free from 
pathogenic germs and the product only of cows 
tested by licensed veterinarians and found to be 
free from tuberculosis and other forms of disease. 



MILK 267 

A child is of value to the world, to the state and to 
the community as well as to the parents; if the 
mother will not willingly nourish by natural means 
the child which she has brought into the world, and 
if she is capable physically of doing so and her 
status economically permits it, it might be well for 
the state to compel her to perform her maternal 
duty just as it compels a father and husband to sup- 
port his family. This would not be socialism, but 
rather the outworking of justice and spiritual or 
altruistic individualism. If the modern mother con- 
sidered her sons her jewels, as did Cornelia, the 
mother of Gracchi (second century B. C), the per- 
formance of a natural duty would not selfishly be 
considered a sacrifice, but rather a heaven-given 
pleasure of maternal service. One of the curses of 
our artificial civilization is the disinclination of 
mothers to feed their little ones at the breast be- 
cause of the exacting trouble maternal nursing in- 
volves and the divorce it necessarily entails from 
social pleasures and spurious pursuits. 

Every mother should nurse her child unless there 
are cogent reasons to the contrary. The following 
causes may be mentioned as contraindicating ma- 
ternal nursing: 

(1) Tuberculosis, latent or active, affecting the 
mother. By nursing the child she can but accelerate 
the progress of the disease, besides possibly expos- 
ing the child to the danger of contracting it. 

(2) When the mother is affected by grave, 
chronic, or systemic disease. 

(3) When the mother is choreic or epileptic. 

(4) If she has suffered from any sereve compli- 
cation of the parturient state, such as hemorrhage, 



268 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

eclampsia, nephritis, puerperal septicaemia, and the 
like. 

( 5 ) Local disease of the mammary gland. 

(6) When as the result of two previous experi- 
ences under favorable conditions she has shown her 
inability to properly nurse her child. 

(7) When no milk is secreted. 

Cow's milk is not a natural food for children. It 
is essentially an alien food and its composition, even 
if it could be obtained in a sterile condition, is not 
adapted to a human being, but the nourishment ot 
an animal on a different zoological plane. When 
an infant is deprived by force of circumstances of 
its legitimate natural food, then the greatest pos- 
sible care should be taken in the choice of substi- 
tutes. Science must be appealed to and immutable 
universal truths must supplant the ignorance and 
indifference of the past. The average general prac- 
titioner knows little, if any more, about the correct 
feeding of adults, not to mention children or infants, 
than did the soothsayer of old or the medicine man 
of the aborigines. Parents must learn the basic 
truths affecting their well-being and the lives and 
health of their progeny, study the research work and 
benefit by the work of the real scientific wTestlers 
with cosmic truth. Then armed with the facts com- 
piled and organized for man's use by the world's 
leaders, such as chemists, analysts, bacteriologists, 
etc., they should go boldly forth doing what their 
innate intelligence tells them to be right and sound 
in principle, scorning to have their minds fettered to 
superstition and the conventional inertia of an irra- 
tional fanaticism void of logic and reason. 



MILK 269 

Carbonated Milk 

In an attempt to preserve milk and furnish an 
appealing drink which will be marketable and some- 
what resemble Koumiss, it is reported that milk will 
be exploited in the near future as an effervescent or 
carbonated bottled drink. It is claimed that such a 
treatment of milk will retard the growth of bacteria 
and will be no more injurious to health than any- 
charged water or the carbonic acid water of soda 
fountains. Milk which is carbonated under a pres- 
sure of seventy pounds to the square inch comes 
from the bottle we are told, as a foamy mass quite 
similar in taste to Koumiss that is two or three days 
old. It has a slightly acid, pleasant flavor due to 
the carbonic acid and a somewhat more salty taste 
than ordinary milk. The cream separates as usual 
in the bottle, but by slight shaking is redistributed 
throughout the milk so that, as it is poured from the 
bottle, it is smooth and satisfactory. 

The advocates of Carbonated Milk maintain that 
pasteurized milk so treated will possess high food 
value, palatability and stability. Such a milk may 
appeal for a time and run its course as "something 
new and different" and thus take its place with new 
foods and drinks which are constantly being 
brought out to tempt and satisfy our far too sen- 
sitive palates. Carbonated Milk will not prove of 
much importance in the solution of our milk prob- 
lem. 

Peptonized Milk 

Peptonized Milk is a specially prepared product 
for the use of infants and invalids. The protein 
constituents of milk, when treated with pepsin 
under suitable conditions, become somewhat pre- 



270 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

digested, and are, therefore, more easily assimilated 
when taken into the system. Less labor is required 
of the digestive tract and nutrition is increased. 

Milk Preservatives 

The only legitimate preserving agents in relation 
to milk are (1) initial and maintained cleanliness 
with its accompanying purity and low bacterial 
content of the commodity, (2) sterilization, which 
is commercially impracticable and can therefore be 
ignored, (3) cold; the speed of growth of micro- 
organisms falls almost to zero at the freezing point 
of water, but rises at a prodigious rate at a summer 
heat, hence to preserve milk as long as possible, it 
should be kept constantly at a very low tempera- 
ture by ice or mechanical refrigeration. 

As milk will not keep sweet, especially in the 
summer, for long periods of time, and as the great 
consuming demand is for fresh milk and not soured 
milk, unscrupulous dealers have attempted to pre- 
serve their milk by the addition of chemical anti- 
septics, germicides or preservatives, which are sup- 
plied to the trade under the general name of Milk 
Preservatives. The effect of these substances is to 
hinder the growth of the bacteria which the milk 
may contain, retard the lactic acid fermentation and 
thereby retard the souring of the milk. Various 
chemical agents have been used as preservatives. 
Obviously the most effective disinfectants, such as 
corrosive sublimate, carbolic acid, etc., cannot be 
used on account of their poisonous nature, but for- 
maldehyde, sodium bicarbonate, salicylic acid, ben- 
zoic acid, boracic acid, hydrogen peroxide, borax, 
quicklime, common salt, certain fluorides, potassium 
dichromate, etc., have been used more or less ex- 



MILK 271 

tensively. Chemical solutions of formaldehyde are 
sold under the name of Formalin (40 per cent, 
strength), and when still more diluted have been 
supplied the dairymen under such trade names as 
Freezine, Iceline, etc., and boric acid solutions have 
been sold under the name of Aseptine. 

The use of any form of chemical or foreign pre- 
servatives in milk should be unhesitatingly and 
scathingly condemned. Perfectly harmless pre- 
servatives have not been discovered, and, notwith- 
standing the claims of irresponsible dairymen, 
biased investigators and chemical manufacturers, 
never will be. Whatever ingredients are necessary 
for the proper nourishment, healthful balance and 
keeping properties of milk, have been placed there 
by nature, and man's role is to play the game by 
strict conformity to nature's laws of sanitation and 
hygiene, and not seek for artificial means to violate 
nature's laws and then avoid, through the science of 
chemistry, the restrogressive thrust of the boom- 
erang. The use of preservatives in milk is illegal; 
the practice is condemned by all recognized authori- 
ties, and yet preservatives are used surreptitiousl} r 
more than is generally believed. 

The American Association of Medical Milk Com- 
missioners, in their Methods and Standards, 
adopted in May, 1912, say that "All certified milks 
and creams shall be free from adulteration and col- 
oring matter, and preservatives shall not be added 
thereto." And again: "Tests for the detection of 
formaldehyde, borax and boracic acid shall be ap- 
plied at least once a month. Occasionally applica- 
tion of tests for the detection of salicylic acid, ben- 
zoic acid and the benzoates are also recommended." 



272 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

It is believed that the art of chemical preserva- 
tion of commodities such as milk has advanced and 
become so protectingly involved that it is difficult 
for the ordinary chemist, unless a student and 
specialist, to detect them in samples submitted for 
his examination and report. Politically-appointed 
chemists in city, state and federal laboratories may 
be unusually competent, or may be most incompe- 
tent, to make practical, thorough tests for the de- 
tection of impurities in milk, but it is known that 
such laboratories have passed as good milk, free 
from preservatives, milk that has a subtle preserva- 
tive therein that cannot be soured in the summer- 
time with the lactic acid Bulgarian bacillus, and that 
keeps sweet outdoors in hot, oppressive weather for 
unusually long periods of time. Certified milk has 
occasionally in the past caused epidemics of disease, 
and certified milk with preservatives added in vio- 
lation of the requirements of the milk associations, 
though fortunately uncommon, is not unknown. If 
such high class milks of boasted purity and gen- 
erally conscientious production are at times chem- 
ically treated and foisted upon the public with 
malicious deception, what can the average city 
dweller expect of ordinary market milk, brought 
probably hundreds of miles from the farm to his 
door and delivered during the heat of the summer, 
as sweet, fresh milk even when two days old or 
more. The pasteurization of milk for use in cities 
is probably the best preventive measure in regard 
to the use of chemical preservatives in milk. If 
milk is required by law to be pasteurized, and if 
the health authorities have an organization of com- 
petent inspectors to enforce such a statute, un- 
scrupulous dairymen will not be tempted to doctor 



MILK 273 

their product so that it will keep sweet for long- 
periods of time. Wiley says that there is but little 
adulteration of milk with chemical preservatives in 
the United States today, and the activity of Federal 
inspectors under the law of June, 1906, found many 
flagrant cases of adulteration and misbranding, but 
only a small percentage of the milk samples tested 
by the various laboratories of the Bureau of Chem- 
istry showed the use of detectable preservatives. 

Formaldehyde in some form or other has been 
popular as a milk preservative. Trillat says that 
formaldehyde renders the casein of milk more or 
less indigestible, and a further objection to its use 
is that part of it remains unaltered in the various 
foodstuffs with which it is admixed, and, being ab- 
sorbed as such by the system, may act injuriously 
on the digestion. Pottevin has observed that for- 
maldehyde retards the coagulation of milk by ren- 
nin, and Bliss and Novy, confirming the conclusions 
of Trillat and Pottevin, have found that under the 
influence of formaldehyde the caseinogen of milk 
is rapidly altered in such a way that either the 
rennin coagulation takes place only very slowly or 
not at all. Thus if formaldehyde in the proportion 
of 1 :500 be allowed to act on milk for a few hours, 
the milk is not coagulated on the addition of rennin. 
On the other hand, they observed that the rennin 
itself is not readily destroyed by formaldehyde, so 
that the delay or hindrance of the rennin coagula- 
tion of milk by formaldehyde is evidently due in 
some way to an alteration in the composition or 
properties of the caseinogen. Similar experiments 
on the action of formaldehyde on the digestive fer- 
ments have been made by Halliburton. He ob- 
served that .5 per cent, of formaldehyde renders 



274 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

gastric digestion almost impossible and .05 per cent, 
delays it considerably. With .1 per cent, formalde- 
hyde, no pancreatic digestion of fibrin occurs in 24 
hours, and dilute solutions of the aldehyde delay 
the pancreatic digestion of starch. He also confirms 
the deleterious effects exerted by formaldehyde 
on the rennin coagulation of milk. Rideal and 
Foulerton say that the small quantity of formalde- 
hyde or boric acid required to preserve milk for 24 
hours, has no appreciable effect on the digestibility 
of milk and interferes less with the pancreatic 
digestion of casein than tea, claret or Worcestershire 
sauce. To say that certain substances are harmless 
because they are believed to be somewhat less harm- 
ful than other substances known to be deleterious to 
health is not scientific, and the writer can testify to 
the positive harmfulness of formaldehyde as a food 
and milk preservative. 

Forster, after thoroughly investigating boric acid 
as a food preservative, concludes that the continu- 
ous administration of small amounts of it affects the 
health of the individual, and "its use as a milk pre- 
servative, especially in milk to be used by children, 
should be condemned." Welch has reported some 
alarming instances of poisoning following the local 
application of large amounts of boracic acid, and 
Chittenden says that borax in quantities retards the 
proteolytic activity of digestive fluids. Gies found 
that boric acid and borax in large amounts pro- 
duced nausea, and Neumann even recommended the 
use of boric acid as a milk preservative because only 
large amounts can cause death by gastroenteritis or 
by its deleterious effect upon the nervous or muscu- 
lar system — a truly astounding reason for its ad- 
vocacy. Liebreich admits that since the introduc- 



MILK 275 

tion of borax into the field of medicine, two hundred 
years ago, there have been many deaths from boric 
acid poisoning, yet he advocates the use of boric 
acid and borax as food preservatives, maintaining 
that the critical spirit of the day is a matter of re- 
gret. He inquires somewhat petulantly, "Who 
would have made the introductiton of pickled meat, 
smoked beef and such like dependent on a chemical 
and pharmacological investigation?" This mental 
attitude takes Liebreich out of the scientists' class 
and makes of him a prejudicial investigator, seek- 
ing to bolster up one side of a case — an attitude of 
mind most unfortunately often assumed by investi- 
gators whose work is in the interest of commercial 
patrons. The outrageous "embalmed meat" ex- 
periences of the Spanish- American War — a heinous 
national disgrace — suggests, notwithstanding Lie- 
breich's peevish ridicule, the propriety of even meats 
being subjected to "chemical and pharmacological 
investigation." 

Salicylic acid and benzoic acid are, fortunately, 
seldom used as milk preservatives, for both of these 
substances are toxic, and the former, according to 
Kastle and Roberts, is more or less cumulative in 
its effects upon the system. The injurious effects 
resulting from continuous small daily doses of sali- 
cylic acid were first pointed out by Brouardel, who 
made a plea for its discontinuance as a food pre- 
servative and for more thorough and systematic ex- 
aminations of preserved foodstuffs by chemists and 
health officers. 

The use of hydrogen peroxide has been urged in 
recent years as a preservative in milk. Budde em- 
ployed a 3 per cent, solution to sterilize milk at 
somewhat lower temperatures than those employed 



276 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

in pasteurization and claimed that after the perox- 
ide (H2O2) was in the milk for a time, one atom of 
oxygen (O) passed off, leaving the substance as 
plain water (H2O), and in the meanwhile it had 
destroyed most of the bacteria. Lakin objects to 
Budde's process of sterilizing milk on the ground 
that it still contains small amounts of the unchanged 
hydrogen peroxide, and also in consequence of the 
injurious impurities commercial solutions of hydro- 
gen peroxide are liable to contain — such as boric 
acid and arsenic — which are present in the sub- 
stances from which the solution of hydrogen perox- 
ide are made. Gordan states that the small amounts 
of hydrogen peroxide employed by Budde in his 
process of sterilizing milk have practically no steril- 
izing action, and that if employed in quantities 
sufficient to sterilize, it imparts a taste to the milk 
and renders it unfit for human consumption. The 
method, whether effective or not, is fortunately too 
expensive for general use, and it has not been prac- 
ticed commercially either abroad or in our own 
country. 

The use of oxygen for disinfection has also been 
recommended. This gas is, of course, perfectly 
harmless, and, moreover, it rapidly passes off from 
the milk so that it could not be classed as a preserva- 
tive adulterant. No practical commercial method 
cf using it to purify a milk supply has, however, as 
yet been devised. 

Fluorides are irritating poisons of considerable 
power. Rubuteau found that one-quarter of a gram 
of sodium fluoride, injected subcutaneously, proved 
fatal to rabbits, and Kolipinski, Schulz, Heiden- 
hain and Weinland have all reported on the toxic 
power of fluorides. Czrellitzer states that such sub- 



MILK 277 

stances are an active poison for all forms of cells 
and for protoplasms generally. Insecticides con- 
taining sodium fluoride taken by accident internally 
have caused violent poisoning. Baldwin, experi- 
menting upon himself, found that one-fourth gram 
produced nausea in two minutes and reached its 
maximum poisoning effect in 20 minutes, subsiding 
in about two hours, but nausea continued after eat- 
ing and at intervals throughout the day. In his 
testimony before the food preservatives committee 
(London) Halliburton took the stand that the use 
ot food preservatives should be abandoned and 
methods of cold storage and transportation substi- 
tuted in their place, upon the ground (1) that an 
antiseptic which is inimical to the lif e of those organ- 
isms that cause putrefaction cannot be harmless to 
the vital processes of the higher animals ; ( 2 ) numer- 
ous clinical observations have been recorded which 
show that dyspeptic and other troubles follow 
the use of foods which have been treated with pre- 
servatives ordinarily employed for such purposes, 
such as borax; (3) even if as in the case of boric 
acid and borax, the poison is not cumulative, th& 
continuous passage of foreign substances through 
the kidneys can not be beneficial to those organs. A 
similar stand against the use of preservatives in food 
has been taken by LerTmann. According to this 
author, the bad effects of a food preservative may 
show itself in several ways: (1) It may interfere 
with the action of the digestive ferments, as has 
been proven in the case of salicylic acid ; ( 2 ) it may 
act on the food, like formaldehyde, and (3) it may 
work a direct injury to the body, as is known to be 
the case with almost all mineral preservatives. 
Hope looks upon it as proven beyond dispute that 



278 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

chemical preservatives, while checking the putrefac- 
tive changes in food, also check the fermentative 
processes of digestion. Especially does he regard 
the use of preservatives in milk as absolutely inde- 
fensible, and points out that the experiments of the 
bacteriological department of the Thompson- Yates 
laboratories are sufficient in themselves to establish 
the dangers of this practice, even if they stood alone. 
According to this author, there are numerous cases 
of injury resulting from the use of milk so pre- 
served. He is therefore of the opinion that cleanli- 
ness and cold alone should be relied upon to insure 
the preservation of milk. Vaughan and Veenboer 
have arrived at the conclusion that it is desirable to 
prevent the use of formaldehyde in any and all 
foods, and also not to allow the use of any preserva- 
tives in milk. The English commission appointed 
to inquire into the subject of food preservatives, 
upon the testimony and findings of seventy-eight 
experts, prohibited the use of all preservatives and 
coloring matters in milk, and at the International 
Congress of Hygiene, held at Brussels in 1903, reso- 
lutions were passed practically prohibiting the use 
of preservatives in all kinds of food. 

Some investigators have contended that in view 
of the exceedingly perishable nature of milk and 
the fact that it frequently has to be brought long 
distances before reaching the consumer, the use of 
a preservative is not only legitimate, but distinctly 
advantageous from a hygienic standpoint, provid- 
ing that the preservative is not injurious to the 
health of the consumer. 

Kastle and Roberts of the United States Public 
Health Service, after exhaustive and commendable 
research work and a thorough consideration of this 



MILK 279 

entire subject, say "that the preponderance of medi- 
cal and scientific opinion is decidedly against the use 
of preservatives in milk, not only on account of pos- 
sible injuries, especially to young children, resulting 
from the continued use of such preservatives in 
small amounts, but also for the reason that the use 
of such substances, if permitted, would ultimately 
tend to carelessness and uncleanliness in the han- 
dling of milk. Cleanliness and cold, the rigorous 
enforcement of the tuberculin test, and proper medi- 
cal supervision of the dairies and those who handle 
the milk are the prime essentials for a pure milk 
supply, and no method of sterilization or preserva- 
tion is likely to give good results." 

Richmond has pointed out that in hot summer 
weather, milk preservatives are comparatively use- 
less unless added in relatively large quantities. He 
also calls attention to the fact that when once the 
souring of milk containing a small amount of pre- 
servative begins, it proceeds at an increased rate as 
compared with milk to which no preservative has 
been added. 

Wiley has said: "Practically all nations have by 
legislation or judicial decision prohibited the use of 
preservatives in milk, though some permit the pres- 
ence of boron in other substances. In this country 
the presence of borax and formaldehyde is forbid- 
den in milk, but benzoate of soda may be used in 
any quantity desired by the manufacturers pro- 
vided its presence and the amounts employed be 
stated on the label. Fortunately, benzoate of soda 
is an extremely poor preservative for milk, and, in 
so far as I know, very little use has been made by 
milk producers and dealers of the permission 
granted to use this chemical. Whatever may be 



280 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

true of the ability of adults to tolerate a certain 
amount of chemicals in their food, it must be ad- 
mitted that the infant is not thus constituted. No 
matter what the chemical may be (and benzoate of 
soda is no better than many of the condemned 
chemical preservatives ) , there are few who have the 
temerity to urge either the unrestricted or even the 
restricted use of chemical preservatives in milk." 

Chemical preservatives of every kind are unnec- 
essary and should be forbidden by drastic measures, 
aggressively enforced, for no chemical substance has 
been discovered nor will be found which possesses 
active bactericidal properties without, in any way, 
affecting either the food substances to which it is 
added or the human subject who consumes it. 

Adulteration of Milk 

There is no food more easily adulterated than 
milk. Water, coloring materials and a variety of 
disinfectants or preservatives can be put in it with- 
out the consumer being aware of it or even having 
any suspicion that fraud is being perpetrated upon 
him and possibly the health of his household men- 
aced. It is time that we thoroughly recognize the 
close association between the purity of the milk 
supply and the public health and adopt protective 
measures for the home with a practical working 
system of supervision and inspection ; the individual 
is absolutely incapable of protecting himself and 
must depend upon an honest, capable and efficient 
official system for the safeguarding of his health 
and that of his family and household, and also his 
protection from fraud and the insidious artifices of 
unscrupulous dealers. 



MILK 281 

The adulterations of milk consist of 

1. The removal of cream — skimming. 

2. The addition of skim milk. 

3. The addition of water — watering. 

4. The addition of thickening agents. 

5. The addition of coloring matter. 

6. The addition of substances to alter the taste or 
the odor of milk. 

7. The addition of substances to increase the 
"total solids" content of milk. 

8. The use of preservatives or disinfectants 

The commonest forms of adulterations are skim- 
ming, watering and the addition of artificial color- 
ing matter and preservatives. The use of thickening 
agents, such as chalk, starch, calves' brains or glycer- 
ine have almost passed out of vogue among farmers 
and dairymen. Water is added to milk to increase 
the output of the dairy; the skimming or watering 
of milk, or the addition of skim milk to natural 
whole milk, all tend to affect not only the physical 
properties and chemical composition of the milk, but 
also its appearance, hence the necessity of resorting 
to artificial coloring substances to conceal what 
would otherwise be recognized as a palpable fraud. 
Thus one form of adulteration leads to another. 
The addition of water to milk should be considered 
not only a fraudulent practice, but a criminal one. 
If the mere rinsing of milk pails in polluted water 
results in epidemics of typhoid — and many hun- 
dreds of serious epidemics have been caused in this 
manner — how much more serious is it to deliberately 
put quantities of contaminated water into a food 
liquid which is peculiarly adapted for the proliferous 
reproduction of the micro-organisms of disease? 



282 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Water itself is not a good food medium for patho- 
genic germs and much water may carry but a rela- 
tively small quantity of typhoid bacilli, but such 
bacteria placed in milk, through water as a carrier, 
find themselves in the best possible culture medium 
for growth and multiplication. The majority of 
farms are relatively low in sanitary efficiency in 
respect to water supply, as it is affected by sewage, 
cesspools, etc., and water mildly contaminated for 
direct drinking purposes may cause milk to be 
virulently noxious without the suspicion that water 
is the direct cause of the contamination of the milk. 
To detect watered milk in a laboratory, aside 
from specific gravity, refractometer readings, deter- 
mination of freezing point and chemical composition 
as compared with standards, advantage is also taken 
of the fact that practically all natural water con- 
tains certain substances such as nitrates and nitrites 
not ordinarily present in milk; if these substances 
are found in a sample of milk it is most probable 
that water has been added to it. According to Com- 
manducci, the watering and skimming of milk may 
be determined by the lowering of what he proposes 
to call the index of oxidation of milk. This he de- 
termines by means of tenth-normal potassium per- 
manganate in acid solution. The number of cubic 
centimeters of potassium permanganate solution 
required to oxidize one cubic centimeter of milk is 
what this author calls the index of oxidation. This 
has been found to be different for the milk of differ- 
ent animals, but practically constant for the normal 
milk of any particular species. He gives the follow- 
ing values for the index of oxidation of the milk 
of various animals: Cow, 50-52; goat, 44-46; 
ass, 55-58; sheep, 43-48; woman, 53-60. He also 



MILK 283 

finds that the value of the index of oxidation of 
cow's milk diminishes with the amount of water 
added, and also with skimming. Thus the index 
of oxidation of cow's milk, containing 50 per cent, 
of added water, was found to be 25 and that of 
skimmed milk 40 to 42 instead of 51 — normal. 
Kastle and Roberts, in their admirable United 
States Government Report on the Chemistry of 
Milk, have said that milk is sometimes adulterated 
by the addition of certain substances, such as sodium 
carbonate and bicarbonate, cane sugar and sac- 
charine, intended to alter or disguise the taste of 
milk. Sodium carbonate and bicarbonate are some- 
times added to sour milk with the view of neutral- 
izing the lactic acid and preventing or delaying the 
separation of the curd. Cane sugar is added in order 
to increase the amount of total solids in milk im- 
poverished by watering, and also to increase the 
sweet taste and thereby disguise any slightly sour 
taste which old milk may possess. Saccharine is 
sometimes added to milk for the same purpose. It 
not only increases the sweet taste of milk, but prob- 
ably also acts as a mild antiseptic. While all of 
these substances are probably harmless in the 
amounts in which they are employed in milk (cer- 
tainly the addition of cane sugar can ordinarily dc 
no particular harm), the practice of adding these 
substances to milk is to be condemned, mainly on 
the ground that they are rarely used except to con- 
ceal deficiencies in the quality of the milk itself, 
thereby enabling the dairyman to palm off on the 
consumer milk which ordinarily would not be found 
acceptable. 

Artificial coloring matter is used in milk to con- 
ceal other forms of adulteration, such as skimminsr 



284 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

and watering, and to make the milk appear richer 
than it really is. Among the coloring matters which 
have been employed for this purpose are annatto, 
certain of the yellow and orange-colored azo dyes 
(coal tar dyes), caramel, etc. Generally speaking, 
the adulteration of milk with these artificial coloring 
matters is in itself not of very great importance, 
inasmuch as they are used in very small quantities. 
The fact, however, that they are employed mainly 
with a view of concealing other more dangerous 
adulterations, such as the addition of water to the 
milk, puts the use of artificial coloring matters 
in milk in the class of dangerous adulterations. 
Houghton has found that annatto, which can be 
detected by an ether test, diminishes the digestibility 
of protein, and other investigators have proved that 
many of the coal tar dyestuffs, when not actively 
poisonous, interfere with the action of digestive fer- 
ments and all are apt to be contaminated with pow- 
erful poisonous impurities. 

Kastle and Roberts have reported an interesting 
case of milk adulteration that came under their 
observation at the Government Laboratories. A 
sample of milk supplied the guests at a prominent 
hotel was submitted for test. It was found to con- 
tain formaldehyde as a preservative and to be arti- 
ficially colored with an azo dye. The specific grav- 
ity was 1.0213; fat content only 1.7 per cent., or 
one-half of what it should be ; ash, .43 per cent., and 
total solids only 7.5 per cent. The milk was watered 
and contained a very large number of bacteria. It 
had been produced under unsanitary conditions, was 
old and dangerous, of little food value, and yet 
such milk, a positive menace to health, chemically 
treated to keep from going sour and doctored with 



MILK 285 

artificial colored matter to look rich and creamy 
after it had been thinned with water, was inflicted 
upon the unsuspecting guests of a first-class hotel, 
who paid a high price for the best and were imposed 
upon outrageously. Dr. Wiley's report on the 
N ational Inspection of Milk indicates that adultera- 
tion of milk is still quite common and "a large per- 
centage of the milk going into some of our great 
cities is either watered or skimmed, or both." 

Soured Milks 

As far back in antiquity as we can probe, chiseled 
and written records, legends, traditions and findings 
in geological strata — the unerring histories of 
ages — all unite in suggesting that the milk industry 
is one of the oldest known to mankind. In the 
Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages, the Nomadic races 
possessed cattle and used their milk as food, and, 
according to the Vedas, the manufacture of butter 
was known in India 1500 B. C. 

From time immemorial the milk of various ani- 
mals has been used in Eastern Europe and Asia 
Minor as an important item of food, and most of this 
milk has been used when sour, for keeping milk 
"sweet" under conditions existing was a difficult 
and practically an impossible task. From ancient 
times to the present, milk from camels, goats, buffa- 
loes and sheep has been used indiscriminately 
throughout the East. There are many Bedouin 
tribes who would scorn to own cows or oxen, for the 
"Sons of the Desert" and many Nomadic peoples 
look upon the cow as a degraded animal and fit only 
to be the property of races who have lost their inde- 
pendence and become serfs of the land and barterers 
oF its product. The Bedouin considers the cultiva- 



286 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

tors of land and the builders of towns as debased, 
perverted branches of the human family ; they have 
only contempt and derision for the artificialness of 
cur civilization, hence their disdain for the domesti- 
cated cow, which they consider a degenerate in the 
animal world. We are told that among the Bedouins 
and Jebours it is considered derogatory to the char- 
acter of a man to milk a cow, or even a sheep, but a 
man can milk a camel and maintain his self-respect. 
Layard writes that the milk of the sheep and goats 
of Bedouins "is shaken into butter or turned into 
curds; it is rarely or never drunk fresh, new milk 
being thought very unwholesome in the desert. The 
curds are formed by boiling the milk and then put- 
ting some curds made on the previous day into it 
and allowing it to stand. When the animals no 
longer give milk, some curds are dried to be used 
as leaven on a future occasion. This preparation, 
called 'leben,' is thick and acid, but very agreeable 
and grateful to the taste in a hot climate. The sour 
milk, a universal beverage among the Arabs, is 
either buttermilk pure and undiluted or curds mixed 
with water." The wandering tribes of Africa and 
the East consider the milk of their flocks and camels 
more wholesome when it has been slightly fermented 
or soured by being poured into a milk skin, on the 
inside of which are sour clots from the previous 
milkings ; in a warm climate such milk quickly be- 
comes slightly sour throughout when agitated. 

Many descriptive writers of life in Palestine, 
T^gypt* Arabia, Persia, Turkey and the Balkan 
States tell us that various forms of soured milk are 
in universal use today as in the past, and Taylor, in 
the "Lands of the Saracens," speaks of the use of 
"thick buttermilk, not remarkably clean, but very 



MILK 287 

refreshing." Metchnikoff says that the chief food 
of the natives of tropical Africa consists of soured 
milk, and in Western Africa, in the region south of 
Angola, the natives live almost entirely on this 
product, there being a difference in the curdled 
milks produced, according to the nature of the 
microbial flora which is introduced. Acerbi tells us 
that reindeer's milk constitutes a principal part ot 
the Laplander's food, and in the far north most of 
the milk is soured and frozen. This is an interesting 
fact, for, with this one exception, it seems that only 
the people of the East, the tropics and the Nomads 
of the Desert have appreciated in the past the virtue 
of soured milk, and they were probably originally 
driven to consider its use by the difficulty of keeping 
milk sweet. 

Bulgaria has been popularly termed of late "the 
land of long life." It is stated that the majority 
of the natives live to an age considerably in excess 
of what is recognized as "a good old age" among 
Western nations. Douglas says that inquiry has 
shown that in the eastern part of Southern Europe, 
with a population of about 3,000,000, "there were 
more than 3,000 centenarians found performing 
duties that would be assigned to a man of 65 years 
of age elsewhere." Reinhardt has said that it is 
quite common to find among the peasants, who live 
to a large extent upon soured milk, individuals of 
110 and 120 years of age. Metchnikoff has said 
that in Servia, Bulgaria and Roumania there were 
5,000 centenarians living in 1896, and while many 
reasons are advanced for such an abnormal condi- 
tion of affairs, it seems fairly certain that the sole 
reason why people in these districts live to such 
great ages is because of their mode of living and the 



288 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

fact that they subsist largely on soured milk. H. C. 
Venables, British Vice Consul at Varna for many 
years, says that soured milk is known by the peas- 
ants as "yogourt," a word spelt differently accord - 
ing to the locality in which it is used. The best 
yogourt is prepared from sheep's milk, the second 
quality from buffaloes' milk and the poorest from 
cows' milk. The culture is known as "Bulgarian 
Maya," and the milk which is to be converted into 
yogourt is first freed of all bacteria by heating or 
boiling and then allowed to cool to the temperature 
of about 110 degrees to 115 degrees F. ; it is then in- 
oculated with maya and maintained at an even tem- 
perature of about 110 degrees F. for several hours. 
There are many varieties of soured or fermented 
milks and they are known by various names. In the 
eastern preparations lactic fermentation is pro- 
duced, generally followed by alcoholic fermentation, 
"which is due to the slow decomposition of the milk 
sugar, the vinous fermentation being most readily 
set up in milks which contain a larger relative pro- 
portion of milk sugar and water, such as the milk 
derived from the mare, the sheep and the camel." 

The bacteriology of milk is a most profound and 
complex study. The dairyman is interested in the 
propagation of lactic acid-producing bacteria, for 
the quality and the economic production of butter 
and cheese depends upon it; scientific dietitians 
seek to eliminate from milk all bacteria which are 
deleterious to health and at times advocate the in- 
oculation of milk with certain bacilli whose action 
is proven to be beneficial to man's physical well- 
being and also conducive to longevity; the various 
degrees of lactic, alcoholic and gaseous fermenta- 
tions in milks caused by bacteria, yeasts and molds 



MILK 289 

are responsible for peculiar sour milk beverages 
popular in the East, and combinations of the differ- 
ent classes of organisms producing these changes in 
milk produce a multiplicity of possible results. 

Of the soured milks used in the East, the most 
common are keffir, koumiss, leben, matzoon, dadhi 
and yogourt, all of which owe their special charac- 
teristics to the fact that they have undergone 
peculiar lactic and alcoholic fermentation, the ex- 
tent of the latter being comparatively great in some 
and relatively small in others. 

Keffir 

Kemr is an acid, slightly alcoholic, drink, which 
seems to have been used from antiquity by the No- 
madic tribes in the Caucasus. It is made from the 
milk of the goat, sheep or cow, the characteristic 
fermentation being induced by keffir grains whose 
origin is surrounded by myth. The Mohammedan 
tribes of the Caucasus affirm that keffir grains were 
presented by Allah to their favored forefathers as a 
sign of immortality. Freshfield, in "The Explora- 
tion of the Caucasus," says that if a man cannot 
reconcile himself to sour milk he is not fit for the 
Caucasus. He described keffir as a delicacy — an 
effervescing milk — obtained by putting into fresh 
milk some yellow grains, parts of a growth which 
contains a bacillus which decomposes the sugar in 
the milk and produces lactic acid, carbonic acid and 
alcohol. "The grains multiply indefinitely in the 
milk; when dried they can be preserved and kept 
for future use." Sohn says that keffir has been 
employed with good results for infant feeding, its 
specific advantage lying in the semi-digested con- 



290 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

dition of the protein contained in it and no clotting 
can occur in the stomach. 

Prof. Hayem has stated that the good effects of 
keffir are due to the presence of alcoholic acid, which 
replaces the acid of the stomach and has an anti- 
septic effect, and the experiments of Rovigh have 
confirmed Hayem's theories. Metchnikoff says that 
with keffir it is the lactic and not the alcoholic fer- 
mentation which is responsible for its valuable 
healthful properties. "The action of keffir in pre- 
venting intestinal putrefaction depends on the lactic 
acid bacillus which it contains," and again, "it is 
correct to replace it by sour milk that contains no 
alcohol or merely the smallest traces of it (such as 
Bulgarian sour milk) . The fact that so many races 
make sour milk and use it copiously is an excellent 
testimony of its usefulness. Douglas tells us that 
well fermented, 48-hour-old keffir is an effervescent 
beverage with prickling and acid taste and a consist- 
ency and smell similar to sour cream. According 
to Hammerstein, normal keffir contains 

Water, 88.26 per cent. 

Fat, 3.35 " 

Casein, 2.98 " 

Milk Sugar, 2.78 " 

Lactic Acid, 0.81 " 

Ash, 0.79 " 

Alcohol, 0.70 " 

Lactalbumen, 0.28 " 

Peptones, 0.05 " 

The acid is seldom higher than 1 per cent, or the 
alcohol more than .75 per cent. According to 
Kuntze, keffir fermentation is the result of the action 
of various organisms. During the initial stage, 
butyric acid fermentation takes place, but is pre- 



MILK 291 

vented from becoming predominant by the action 
of keffir yeast. Simultaneously a true lactic acid 
fermentation proceeds and eventually gives place to 
a subsequent secondary production of butyric acid. 

Koumiss 

V It is generally admitted that the greatest of all 
the fermented milks is koumiss, famous from an- 
tiquity as being the principal food of the wandering 
tribes of Khirgiz, Bashkirs, Kalmucks and Tartars 
who inhabit the steppes of European Russia and the 
plains of South, Western and Central Asia. Long 
before the Christian Era the Scythians made kou- 
miss by the fermentation of mare's milk, and many 
records are available to show that the Nomads of 
the steppes, living in the saddle, used the milk of 
their mares in a fermented state as a substantial 
article of food. De Rubruquis, a French missionary 
to Tartary in the thirteenth century, described kou- 
miss in his writings and states that "he found it 
savoury to the palate." Rubruck, in 1253, records 
the use among the Tartars of a fermented drink — 
kosmos — prepared from mare's milk, and about the 
same time Marco Polo referred to the milk-wine, or 
chumis, of the rovers of the steppes. Dr. Grieve, 
in 1784, advocated the use of koumiss for wasting 
diseases, and later sanatoria for the treatment of 
pulmonary consumption were established, it is said, 
with much success in various places in Russia, where 
they exist to this day. 

Koumiss is another product of the combined 
action of lactic acid and alcohol-producing organ- 
isms. It is made principally from mare's milk, but 
at times the milk of camels is used, and in some 
countries even cow's milk has been used as a poor 



292 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



but easily obtainable substitute for mare's milk. 
Douglas says that the changes which koumiss under- 
goes during fermentation "consist in a vigorous gas 
and acid production, accompanied by alcohol for- 
mation and coagulation of the milk. The coagulum 
exists in an extremely fine state of division and the 
liquid froths violently when the bottle is opened. 
It has a full pleasant acid taste, but should not con- 
tain more than 1 per cent, acid and 2 per cent, alco- 
hol. The specific gravity of koumiss is 1.008 to 
1.020 at 60 degrees F." The following is an analy- 
sis of two different samples of koumiss, attributed 
to Fleischmann: 

KOUMISS 

From From Separated 
Mare's Milk Cow's Milk 
Per cent. Per cent. 

Water, 91.535 88.933 

Fat, 1.274 0.854 

Nitrogenous bodies, 1.913 2.025 

Sugar, 1.253 3.108 

Ash, 0.293 0.444 

Carbon Dioxide, 0.876 1.027 

Alcohol, 1.850 2.647 

Lactic Acid, 1.006 0.796 

Glycerine, 0.166 



Sohn says that the composition of koumiss varies 
between the following limits : 

Alcohol, 
Lactic Acid, 
Milk Sugar, 
Nitrogenous matter, 
Fat, 

Mineral Salts, 
together with carbonic acid gas. 



1.0 to 3.0 per cent. 

0.6 to 2.5 

0.0 to 3.0 

1.0 to 3.5 

1.0 to 2.5 

0.3 to 0.6 



MILK 293 

Koumiss is described by the U. S. Federal Stand- 
ards for dairy products as "the product made by 
the alcoholic fermentation of mare's or cow's milk." 
Conn says that an imitation product somewhat simi- 
lar to koumiss, and so named, is now being widely 
made from cow's milk. "A small quantity of suga^ 
is added to milk and some common baker's yeast. 
An alcoholic fermentation soon begins and the fer- 
mented product is called Koumiss." It is needless 
to say that such a product is not koumiss. It is but 
a base commercial imitation, possesses some of the 
characteristic by-flavor of the yeast employed and 
is probably far less wholesome or valuable medi- 
cinally than the true koumiss prepared from mare's 
milk with its own peculiar fermentation and lactic 
yeast. 

Suter-Naef gives the composition of a Swiss imi- 
tation of Tartar Koumiss made from the skim milk 
of cows (the fat in normal cow's milk is objection- 
able), with sugar and yeast added, as follows: 

Per cent. 



Water, 


90.346 


Alcohol, 


3.210 


Lactic acid, 


0.190 


Sugar, 


2.105 


Albuminates, 


1.860 


Butter, 


1.780 


Inorganic salts, 


0.509 


Free carbonic acid, 


0.177 



Clarke in his "Travels" describes the "Koumiss 
and the brandy which the Kalmucks distil from the 
milk of mares." Clarke found that koumiss was 
"a kind of sour milk like that used by the Lapland- 
ers, called Tina' and which has undergone, to a 



294 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

certain degree, the vinous fermentation; and the 
brandy, an ardent spirit obtained from koumiss by 
distillation. In making koumiss they sometimes 
employ the milk of cows, but never if mare's milk 
can be had, as the koumiss from the latter yields 
three times as much brandy as that made from cow's 
milk." 

Koumiss is also sometimes known as "Milk 
Wine." 

Leben 

The ancient soured milk of the Egyptians was 
known and continues to be known as "Leben." It 
is made from the milk of goats, buffaloes or cows; 
has a very weak alcoholic fermentation, a charac- 
teristic aroma and taste, and the coagulum is coarse 
and lumpy instead of fine as in Kefnr. 

Matzoon 

This is a drink used largely in Western Asia and 
Armenia. It is prepared in a somewhat similar 
manner to Kefnr, from goat's, buffalo's or cow's 
milk and is used partly as a means of souring milk 
for butter-making and also as a lactic food eaten 
with spoons. It has a comparatively weak alcoholic 
fermentation and is made at a higher temperature 
than Kefnr and Koumiss. 

Araka 

Some of the semi-civilized tribes of Siberia, the 
Tartars and the Burgatens make and use a strong 
alcoholic beverage named Araka, from fermented 
milk, by distillation. Araka contains 7 to 8 per 
cent, of alcohol and volatile fatty acids. This 
should not be confused with the Racky, which the 
Kalmucks distil from koumiss and which Clarke 



MILK 295 

likens unto "a weak, bad brandy not unlike the 
common spirit distilled by the Swedes and other 
northern nations." 

Dadhi 

Douglas says that large quantities of fermented 
milk are used in India under the name of Dadhi, 
and its characteristics are not unlike the soured 
milks of Europe. Chatter jee says that the active 
specific bacillus of Dadhi is somewhat akin to the 
Bulgarian bacillus and the bacillus of Leben. The 
same authority also gives the following interesting 
table showing the amount of lactic acid produced 
by different bacilli in one litre of milk, in terms of 
lactic acid — the culture being kept at 981/2 ° F. 

Type of Bacillus After the No. of hours below stated 
24 48 72 96 168 

Bulgarian, 12.8 16.5 20.2 . 22. 

Matzoon, 10.8 12. 

Dadhi, 10.8 11.25 11.70 18.5 

Bulgarian Yogourt 

Bulgarian soured milk is related to the Matzoon 
of Armenia, the Gioddu of Sardinia and the Leben 
of Egypt. According to Guerbet, Yogourt incu- 
bated for 10 hours at 113°F. contains 0.34 per cent, 
of lactic acid and 0.012 per cent, alcohol. We are 
told that in Bulgaria, Yogourt is made in nearly 
every household. The fresh, or sweet, milk is boiled 
until about a quarter of its volume is evaporated; 
it is then cooled to about 113° F. and the ferment 
added. This ferment is a portion of Yogourt of 
approved flavor, and is named Maya. The great 
reputation acquired by Bulgarian Soured Milk has 
caused Maya to become an article of commerce and 



296 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

being the soured milk generally believed to have the 
most active lactic acid bacteria, it is sent to many 
countries as a vehicle containing "the bacillus of 
long life." 

Conn in discussing ancient soured milk says "In 
all cases the beverage is made by ferments which 
the people prepare by special methods and keep 
on hand. In many places the ferment is simply a 
little of the old fermented milk inoculated into the 
new milk. Most of these forms of alcoholic milk 
have been studied by bacteriologists and have been 
found to be based in general upon the same prin- 
ciple. They all represent a combined action of bac- 
teria and yeasts. These beverages are frequently 
regarded as more easily digestible than ordinary 
milk and they certainly have a more pleasant flavor. 
Perhaps their popularity is due simply to the fact 
that they contain alcohol." The alcoholic content 
of native Bulgarian Sour Milk is negligible and 
far too low to cause popularity, and Keffir with 
only a fifth or a sixth of the alcoholic content of 
beer, cannot be considered an inebriating drink. 
Koumiss made from cow's milk may contain about 
six-tenths of the alcohol found in a similar unit 
measure of beer, but it is a far healthier and better 
balanced drink; real Koumiss made from mare's 
milk contains only about 40 per cent, of the alcohol 
found in a mild beer. The popularity of the Soured 
Milk of the ancients and of their descendants, now 
populating parts of Asia, Eastern Europe and 
Northern Africa, is due to its wholesomeness, food 
value, palatability, keeping qualities and its health- 
giving and body toning properties. The pro- 
nounced lactic acid fermentation of soured milks 



MILK 297 

and not the small alcoholic content have made such 
substances famous ; the use of such lactic acid milks 
has contributed materially to health and added to 
life and the average span of years in the com- 
munities where they are used. Statistics and scien- 
tific investigations and not hysterical superstition 
and romanticism, suggest therefore that lactic acid 
soured milk contains a "Bacillus of Long Life and 
Health." The persistent use of such milks has 
proved so beneficial to certain peoples that the pe- 
culiar lactic media or culture is known as a "Gift 
from the Gods" and the resultant Soured Milk, to 
the inhabitants of Western Europe and America, 
is being looked upon as a sort of panacea for all 
ills. Physicians are faddists. Of late years, pri- 
marily because of the research work of Metchni- 
koff, they have been advocating the drinking of 
buttermilk and soured milks for the curing of al- 
most all human ills. This fact is both fortunate 
and unfortunate; the former because it is far 
healthier than drugs for almost every physical suf- 
ferer ; the latter because being used where it should 
not be used, it may be ultimately discredited and 
lactic acid milk is too valuable a food drink and too 
healthful and wholesome a beverage to be thrown 
into disrepute by the enthusiastic ignorance of 
doctors, who have the most deplorable habit of 
catching blindly at some worthy fact or theory, 
dressing it up and parading it forth as a panacea 
with wonderful curative or palliative properties, 
only to drop it abruptly when it loses its power of 
suggestion on the public and take up some other 
fad to ride as a hobby to the detriment of a long 
suffering public. If physicians would take up sane 



298 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

cures, healthful foods and nature's supplied anti- 
dotes for human error, rationally, conservatively 
and scientifically, they could do a vast amount of 
good in the world, for the great mass of mankind 
need to be educated to take proper care of them- 
selves and the majority of people demand that 
somebody else think, reason and decide for them. 
But until physicians think for themselves, shun 
their present parrot and sheep-like tendencies and 
follow truth instead of superstition, suggestion and 
the line of least resistance, how can they think for 
others? The advocacy by the medical profession 
today of any meritorious food, habit or antidote 
for error in living, rings the death knell of the 
thing advocated, for general practitioners persist 
in making of a thing that is good for certain re- 
stricted phases of life, a panacea and cure-all. Their 
propaganda of bigoted ignorance must ultimately 
kill any worthy thing, habit or plan, by taking it 
from its legitimate channel of useful service and 
thrusting it forth as a universal remedy for all ills 
and diseases ; if it is a medicine, drink or substance 
to be taken internally, it becomes enveloped in 
mysticism and savors much of the elixirs of al- 
chemy — thus are worthy substances of nature and 
excellent habits of life discredited and the world is 
the loser because of the non-exercise on the part of 
the medical profession of the mental processes of 
reason and discrimination. 

Since Metchnikoff advocated the use of lactic 
acid milk to overcome intestinal putrefaction and 
auto-intoxication, it has been reasoned that lactic 
acid is lactic acid and that any lactic acid bacteria 
that has caused the souring of milk must be an 



MILK 299 

effective means of overcoming auto-intoxication. 
Moreover, auto-intoxication, or self-poisoning 
from faulty dieting and putrefaction of waste mat- 
ter by bacteria in the lower intestine, is reasoned 
to be the cause of the vast majority of human ills, 
so everybody must drink sour milk or buttermilk 
if they wish to maintain or regain health. The 
concoctions that have been sold in this country, a*> 
equal in wholesomeness and medicinal properties 
to the Bulgarian Yogourt, are almost numberless 
and the majority of them practically worthless. 
The dairies have profited by the demand for sour 
milk and have had opened up to them a splendid 
market for old skimmed milk and old bad milk. 
Ordinary sour milk has been named Bulgarian but- 
termilk, and myriads of other names copying after 
the famous Sour Milk of the East; drug-stores and 
milk dealers have indiscriminately soured old and 
bad milk under most unsanitary conditions and 
probably not ten per cent, of the Sour Milk sold 
in this country, with all our opportunities for hy- 
gienic and sanitary treatment, has been prepared 
with as much real cleanliness and protective pre- 
cautions as is exercised by the Bulgarian peasants 
who make it in their homes — abodes that do not 
have by any means any international reputation 
for cleanliness. 

Dr. Wiley, referring to the imitation sour milks 
made in this country, has said that "a natural pro- 
duct produced from natural material is always su- 
perior in character both as a food and medicine to 
the synthetic or artificial product. Whenever a fer- 
mented beverage from natural sources is contamin- 
ated by artificial products, the resulting compound 



300 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

is not so useful nor digestible." As an illustration, 
Wiley says that the genuine Koumiss of the East is 
a medicinal food of great value and it possesses 
properties which are lacking in the worthless imita- 
tions commonly found in this country. The alcohol 
in genuine Koumiss is incidental to its fermentation 
but American Koumiss is sometimes artificially for- 
tified by the addition of alcohol, a practice which 
must be regarded as extremely reprehensible; 
moreover, cow's milk as used in this country has 
neither the chemical composition nor the identical 
physical properties of the mare's milk used in East- 
ern Europe, Western Asia and Asia Minor. 

Buttermilk 

The residue left in the churn in the manufacture 
of butter is named "Buttermilk." There are two 
varieties, viz.: that resulting from the churning of 
unsoured cream and that remaining after the 
churning of soured or ripened cream. The first 
kind of buttermilk is essentially a skimmed milk 
but the latter has a pronounced acid taste, is whole- 
some and palatable and is generally known as 
Dairy Buttermilk. 

The composition of the two kinds of Buttermilk 
is given by Wiley, as follows: 





From Sweet 


From Sour 




Cream 


Cream 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Water, 


89.74 


90.93 


Fat, 


1.21 


0.31 


Milk Sugar, 


4.98 


4.58 


Protein, 


3.28 


3.37 


Ash, 


0.79 


0.81 


Acidity, 




0.80 



MILK 301 

Other beverages sold under the name of Butter- 
milk which are produced by the artificial souring 
cf skimmed milk, whole milk, or milks of aug- 
mented or decreased fat content, with the aid of 
appropriate ferments producing principally lactic 
acid, are not in reality Buttermilk and, it has been 
truly said, have no claim whatever to the name. 

Bacteria in Buttermilk and Sour Milk 

The simple fact that milk contains bacteria even 
in large quantities, does not render it dangerous 
to drink. The important thing to know is the type 
and nature of the bacteria present. It has been 
known for ages that certain forms of soured or 
fermented milks were healthful products, and sour 
milk or buttermilk has long been used with success 
by invalids and even infants. These acid milks 
contain bacteria in enormous numbers; the bac- 
terial content may be 500,000,000 per c.c. or even 
more. That such bacteria-laden beverages can be 
taken, even by children, with benefit, has definitely 
demonstrated beyond question that bacteria may 
be useful and their presence healthful as well as 
dangerous and toxic. Attempts therefore to de- 
termine the wholesomeness or harmfulness of milk, 
based upon the number of bacteria it contains 
instead of the kind of bacteria, age of milk and 
treatment which it (has undergone, is positively 
fallacious. The presence of acid bacteria in the 
human intestines seems necessary to control the 
normal process of digestion. If these acid germs 
are not present, the contents of the intestines are 
much more liable to undergo putrefaction, thus 
causing auto-intoxication. For this reason the tak- 
ing of acid organisms into the system seems to be 



302 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

useful if they can exist until they reach the lower 
intestines and thrive there to form acid where it is 
needed in the main colon. Sour milk and butter- 
milk are usually almost pure cultures of lactic acid 
bacteria and as such can be used to very great ad- 
vantage in cases where acid organisms are needed 
in the intestines. 

Good Sour Milk a Healthful Food Drink 

Metchnikoff has affirmed that senility is caused 
to a great extent by auto-intoxication or by the 
poisons derived from putrefactive micro-organisms 
which inhabit the lower part of the digestive tract. 
These organisms increase with age and under 
faulty dietetic conditions, multiply enormously. 
His research and experimental work in combating 
the influence of these harmful microbes, suggested 
that the tendency to longevity exhibited in certain 
eastern countries, is due to the steady and main- 
tained consumption of lactic acid organisms which 
exist in abundance in their soured milks. These 
organisms being more powerful that those of a 
putrefactive character, inhibit the growth of the 
bacteria which thrive in an alkali or neutral medium 
and which have been proven to be so deleterious 
to health. Metchnikoff says that it is exceedingly 
important to combat intestinal putrefaction, for it 
is an incontestible source of danger which not only 
causes diseases of the digestive tract but is a source 
of intoxication of the entire organism. "I have had 
no illusion as to the difficulty sure to be encountered 
in any effort to introduce lactic microbes into the 
intestinal flora which has been preoccupied by a 
multitude of other microbes. To make sure of the 
result I chose the lactic microbe which is the strong- 



MILK 303 

est as an acid producer. It is found in the Yogourt 
which originates in Bulgaria — the Bacillus Bul- 
garicus. The same bacillus has also been isolated 
from the 'Leben' of Egypt and it is now proved 
that it exists in the curdled milk of the whole 
Balkan peninsula and even in the Don Region of 
Russia.' ' At birth, the human intestines contain 
no microbes but they very soon appear. If a child 
be fed with cow's milk, the intestinal tract contains 
a greater variety of micro-organisms and many 
more of them, than is the case if the child is suckled 
at its mother's breast. As life advances, the in- 
testinal flora varies with the food and this fact 
makes it possible to adopt remedial measures to 
modify the flora in our bodies and replace harmful 
bacteria with useful ones. In popular practice the 
value of acids for preventing putrefaction has long 
been recognized. Meats, fish and vegetables can be 
"kept" in vinegar as the acetic acid in that sub- 
stance, the product of bacteria, prevents decom- 
position. If the substances to be preserved give 
off acids themselves, the addition of some foreign 
enveloping medium is unnecessary. For this reason 
some animal products, such as milk, or vegetables 
rich in sugar, become acid spontaneously and so 
can be preserved. Soured milk can be made into 
cheese which will last for a relatively long time. 
We are told that in Russia, the use of the acidified 
vegetables is of great importance in the food sup- 
ply of the populace, as fresh fruits and vegetables 
cannot be obtained in the long winters and the 
people consume large quantities of fruits and vege- 
tables which have undergone an acid fermentation 
in which lactic acid is the chief product. Soured 



304 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

milk, because of the lactic acid in it, can impede 
the putrefaction of meat, and Metchnikoff says 
that in certain countries meat is preserved in acid 
skimmed milk. Lactic acid fermentation is also 
important in the food supply of cattle and it is the 
chief agent in the process of preserving vegetation 
in silos. Lactic fermentation which serves so well 
to arrest putrefaction in general, can be used to 
perform the same function within the digestive 
tract of the human body. Putrefaction and butyric 
fermentation are arrested in the presence of sugar 
but sugar of itself cannot prevent putrefaction. 
Sugar preserves organic matter from decom- 
position only because it can readily undergo lactic 
fermentation and this action is the work of micro- 
organisms, the discovery of which founded the 
science of bacteriology. Meat kept in a warm at- 
mosphere soon putrefies ; milk, under the same con- 
ditions, does not putrefy but becomes sour, the 
reason being that meat is poor in sugar whereas 
milk contains a good deal of it and sufficient lactic 
acid bacteria to feed upon it and produce a whole- 
some physical change instead of a decomposition 
into rottenness. Herter, Cohendy, Pochon, Grund- 
zach, Hayen, Belonowsky and a host of other au- 
thorities all verify the original deductions of Metch- 
nikoff, that the introduction of lactic ferment into 
the digestive tract arrests putrefaction; also that 
intestinal putrefaction is to be combated not by 
lactic acid itself, but by the introduction into the 
organism of cultures of the lactic bacilli. 

From time immemorial, human beings have ab- 
sorbed quantities of lactic microbes and thus have 
unknowingly lessened the evil consequences of in- 



MILK 305 

testinal putrefaction. Soured milk is frequently 
spoken of in the Bible. When Abraham entertained 
the Angels he set soured milk before them. Moses 
enumerates among the foods which God had given 
his people "Soured Milk of Kine and Goat's Milk." 
Such milk — Leben — has been used in Egypt from 
the remotest antiquity. The famous drinks Kou- 
miss and Keffir of the saddle Nomads and horse 
breeders, date back to the ages of legend and myth- 
ology; both are alcoholic, are difficult to produce 
away from their native setting and their efficacy 
depends upon the lactic acid bacilli which they con- 
tain in large quantities. Keffir is quite variable 
and there has been but little success in producing 
it by pure cultures, moreover the yeasts which it con- 
tains are apt to prove somewhat harmful, at times, 
to those who do not live the free life of the open. 
Koumiss could be more readily duplicated and if 
properly made under sanitary conditions, would be a 
most healthful drink and an admirable substitute for 
beer. The Bulgarian Yogourt not only contains the 
strongest and most dependable lactic acid bacillus, 
but it is quite adaptable; and Bulgarian Sour Milk 
can be fairly well duplicated in any part of the world 
provided the proper culture, or Maya, is obtainable. 
Eastern soured milks, such as Bulgarian Yogourt 
and Egyptian Leben, are generally made from 
boiled milk with a prepared ferment added. Metch- 
nikoff has said "From the point of view of flavor 
1 find that soured milk, prepared from raw milk, 
is much more agreeable. However, we must keep 
hygiene strictly in view. Raw milk contains a large 
assortment of microbes and frequently some of 
them are harmful; the bacillus of bovine tuber- 



306 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

culosis as well as other pernicious microbes may be 
found in it. As raw milk nearly always contains 
traces of faecal matter from the cow, it sometimes 
happens that pernicious microbes are introduced 
from that source and remain alive notwithstanding 
the acid coagulation of the milk. The lactic mi- 
crobes prevent the multiplication of certain bacteria, 
but are incapable of destroying them. Prolonged 
consumption of raw milk increases the risk of in- 
troducing dangerous bacteria into the organism, and 
this possibility drives me to recommend soured milk 
prepared after heating the raw milk." Heim 
found, for instance, that the bacillus of typhoid 
fever remained alive for 48 days in completely 
soured milk; this is a strong argument in favor of 
the pasteurization of milk before souring it. Re- 
search has proven that in all the well-known East- 
ern soured milks, the all-important lactic bacilli are 
associated with a rich flora in which pernicious mi- 
crobes may be met, hence it seems desirable to at- 
tempt to obtain for Western consumption a good 
sour milk by the aid of virile pure cultures of the 
lactic bacteria. Rist and Khoury say that Egyptian 
Leben contains a flora composed of five species, 
three of which are bacteria and two yeasts; the 
former produce lactic acid and the latter alcohol. 
Bulgarian Yogourt contains several species of bac- 
teria, but conspicuously among them, and throwing 
all the remainder into the background, is a very 
powerful lactic ferment now known as the Bul- 
garian bacillus which is not only an extremely active 
producer of lactic acid, but forms neither alcohol 
nor acetone (two frequent products of bacterial 
fermentation) , and but very small quantities of sue- 



MILK 307 

cinic and acetic acid and practically no formic acid. 
The bacillus also differs from other lactic ferments 
inasmuch as it has no action on albuminoids nor on 
fats. In order to improve the taste and obtain 
better all-around results, Metchnikoff has combined 
with the Bulgarian Bacillus another lactic acid 
microbe known as the Paralactic Bacillus, and this 
combination — Lactobacilline — is now produced 
commercially for use in all parts of the world. 

In man the colon or large intestine is very largely 
developed. This organ is of practically no value 
in the digestion of food and seems to be primarily 
a receptacle for waste or undigested matter which 
has been taken into the system as food. The re- 
mains of undigested foods and the mucous se- 
cretions in the large intestine, form a medium very 
favorable to the growth of micro-organisms. 
Strassburger says that there are very few microbes 
in the digestive or upper portion of the alimentary 
canal but there is an enormous quantity in the lower 
part and they increase at the rate of 128,000,000- 
000,000 per day. This bacterial flora constitutes 
one-third of the human excreta and is made up 
of an immense number of different species which 
flourish in an alkaline or a non-acid environment. 
The excessive activity of bacteria in any part of 
the intestines produces putrefactive changes in the 
waste matter and as a result, poisonous principles 
are evolved and these find their way into the 
blood. Lactobacilline, the scientifically com- 
pounded culture of Bulgarian Sour Milk, or the 
prime lactic Bacterium named Bulgarian Bacillus, 
is an effective means of producing acid in the main 



308 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

colon so as to control the bacterial flora of the in- 
testines and in this way tend to prevent the forma- 
tion of toxic poisons ; this culture is happily named 
the Bacillus of Long Life. These bacteria are 
vigorous, multiply with great rapidity and persist 
in conditions that would be inimical to other micro- 
organisms. The growth and development of bac- 
teria are interfered with by the products of their own 
activity; lactic acid producing organisms die when 
a certain amount of lactic acid has been developed, 
but whereas the same fate overtakes the Bulgarian 
bacillus, it survives longer than other lactic acid bac- 
teria and is able, we are told, to produce 2.5 per cent, 
of lactic acid in milk before it ceases operations. 
Douglas says, "The soured milk remedy is not a 
disagreeable one, as, when properly prepared, the 
article forms both a pleasant and refreshing article 
of diet. The question of getting the right article, 
however, is a very important one. Milk is a splendid 
rearing ground for many bacteria, some of which 
are very injurious; among these may be pathogenic 
germs, the seeds of tuberculosis, enteritis, etc. The 
danger with sour milk is that in the process of cul- 
ture we develop the best condition for the increase 
of these when they preponderate, or when, through 
the use of bad cultures, the lactic acid producing 
bacteria are present only in small numbers." By 
the scientific heating or pasteurizing of milk we 
can eliminate all pathogenic micro-organisms and 
practically all bacteria. The efficacy and whole - 
someness of soured pre-pasteurized milk will then 
depend entirely upon the characteristics and purity 
of the culture introduced. Fortunately, pure cul- 
tures, now being prepared in a most careful and 



MILK 309 

scientific manner by specialists, are available for 
general use and can be obtained for utilization in 
the home, and home preparation is strongly advo- 
cated wherever the consumer cannot be positively 
assured by milk dealers of the proper treatment of 
milk and the employment of efficient pure cultures 
in the souring process. 

Soured whole milk is more nourishing than 
soured skim milk, but there are very many people 
leading a sedentary life who find difficulty in readily 
digesting any appreciable quantity of cream or fat. 
Soured cream is digested with comparative ease, 
nevertheless there are a large number of people 
who cannot easily assimilate even soured cream 
and who need the benefit of lactic acid fermentation. 
For such, soured milk robbed of its cream or fat 
content and soured when fresh, or immediately 
soured after prompt and careful pasteurization, is 
the ideal and beneficial drink. Such a milk, which 
can generally be retained when all other foods are 
rejected, does not have a high calorific value but it 
contains the normal protein, or tissue-building sub- 
stances, and the milk sugar, carbohydrates or en- 
durance-producing ingredients of the original milk. 
Cream, as a rule, contains far more bacteria than 
the remainder of the milk, and Douglas says "We, 
therefore, start from a surer foundation when it is 
removed; besides the mechanical separator, now so 
largely used, removes slime and other impurities 
from the milk, and these also are hot-beds of bac- 
teria." 

It was noticed some time ago, during research 
work in regard to tubercle bacilli in market milk, 
that when guinea pigs were inoculated with cream, 



310 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

a very much higher percentage died from acute 
infection than when they were given whole milk, 
middle milk, bottom milk or sediment. Anderson 
says that top milk contains from 10 to 500 times 
as many bacteria per c.c. as the mixed milk. "When 
milk is centrifugalized, the great mass of bacteria 
go up with the cream; a lesser number is carried 
down with the sediment. The skim milk contains 
many times fewer bacteria per c.c. than the cream 
or sediment layers. Centrifugally-raised cream 
contains many more bacteria per c.c. than the grav- 
ity-raised cream from the same milk." 

The following tabulated synopsis of U. S. Gov- 
ernment Tests is of interest: 

NUMBER OF BACTERIA PER C. C. 

No. of Gravity Centrifugalized 

Samples Cream Sediment Cream Sediment Skim Whole 
Tested Layer Layer Layer Layer Milk Milk 

30 69,211,000 4,360,000 

26 68,690,000 4,840,000 96,840,000 18,840,000 14,388,000 

6 15,416,000 1,405,000 2,050,000 2,708,000 

7 4,500,000 725,900 119,700 619,800 

The preponderance of bacteria in the cream or 
fat of milk is of great importance, not only in the 
use of soured milks but in the use of all milks and 
particularly in the use of top milk for infant feed- 
ing. The various bacteria causing acute infections 
are more numerous in the top milk than in the bot- 
tom milk. In many cases this difference is more 
than a hundred fold and as infection must de- 
pend to some extent on the number of bacteria intro- 
duced into the body, too little attention is being 
given to the question of bacterial content in top 
milk for infant feeding, particularly in the summer- 
time. 



MILK 311 

Sour milk without cream is without doubt par- 
ticularly good for all people who eat heavily and 
exercise little. It has been proved to be good for 
the active roving Nomad; it must be many fold 
more beneficial to the muscularly lazy western meat 
eaters. Such milk can be taken at any time, be- 
tween, before or after meals. It is beneficial to the 
entire digestive tract and is salutary for the liver; 
it is particularly efficacious for arterialsclerosis, i. e. 
hardening of the arteries, which has been termed 
the "Disease of Old Age," and is of benefit in cer- 
tain kidney diseases, for the kidneys and the liver 
are the natural guardians of the body against the 
toxines which enter the blood from the intestines; 
auto-intoxication injures and over-stresses these 
and other kindred organs. Sour milk tends to neu- 
tralize the bad effects of alcoholism, of faulty diet- 
ing and operates to overcome many of the evils of 
our artificial civilization with its unnatural mode of 
life. 

The Use of Milk 

Milk properly modified is the prime food of the 
very young and should be used as an important 
part of the diet of the very old. It is often referred 
to as the "ideal food" but in so far as its applica- 
tion to the feeding of adults is concerned, the de- 
scription exceeds the truth; and cow's milk for 
both the very young and the old generally needs 
modifying to make it acceptable and adaptable. 
Milk occupies an intermediate position between a 
drink and a solid food ; it is a liquid food, too nutri- 
tious for a beverage and too dilute to replace solid 
nourishment for an adult. It is, moreover, not of 
suitable chemical composition to nourish the human 



312 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

body efficiently and agreeably for long periods of 
time and the true function of milk for adults should 
be the enrichment of a diet otherwise poor in fat 
and protein. Milk should be an invaluable com- 
ponent part of the general diet of adults but more 
should never be expected of it. As milk is heavily 
charged with solid matter it should not be used as 
a drink in the ordinary sense of the word, but with 
a proper appreciation of the fact that it is both 
food and drink. Milk should always be sipped and 
no person can take, copiously, draughts of milk 
without ultimately experiencing discomfort. If 
milk is gulped down in large quantities, it is apt to 
coagulate in lumps and digestion is much inter- 
fered with, but if it is taken slowly, it coagulates — 
i. e. the casein is curdled by rennet — in small pieces 
which are readily attacked by the gastric juice and 
milk is then one of the most assimilable of foods. 
Nature provides that the milk of young animals 
is supplied in finely divided streams so that coagu- 
lation takes place in the best possible way and diges- 
tion is accomplished without embarrassment. 

Lorand says that a diet consisting of milk alone 
is one-sided, since only one kind of food is taken 
and for a normal person, a one-sided diet is not in 
any way advisable as it has the same effect as insuf- 
ficient nutrition. "An adult person can get on 
very well with milk only during a certain time and 
when persisted in, this mode of nourishment is quite 
as injurious as any other one-sided diet. Milk 
when taken alone is not fully assimilated; about 18 
per cent, of the food is lost through faulty assimila- 
tion. As much as four quarts of milk would have 



MILK 313 

to be taken daily to thrive upon this diet. When 
bread and cheese is added, the assimilation is much 
better for the diet is no longer one-sided, and per- 
sons who are heroic enough to live in this way, or 
who are compelled to do so, may be sure of a long 
life." 

Lorand has described old age as a chronic dis- 
ease due to degeneration of the glands, with their 
internal secretions, generally described as ductless 
glands, such as the thyroids, adrenals, etc. He 
maintains that such degeneration is amenable to 
treatment just as are chronic diseases in general 
and advocates the use of milk as an article of diet, 
affirming that milk "excites the activity of the thy- 
roid gland, owing to its content of the internal se- 
cretion of the thyroid which passes the milk." We 
therefore find that both of the new scientific schools 
for combating old age by hygienic and therapeutic 
measures, advocate the use of milk. The Metchni- 
koff School believes that the lactic acid bacillus 
found in milk, and particularly in sour milk, func- 
tions in the lower intestine to overcome the bacteria 
of putrefaction and tends to reduce the evils of 
auto-intoxication, or self-poisoning. The Lorand 
School believes in measures to prevent or retard 
the atrophy of the ductless glands of the body and 
are of the opinion that the use of milk, while not 
their prime remedial measure, is nevertheless of 
great benefit in stimulating the thyroid glands, thus 
functioning to postpone old age as well as nourish 
the body. Lorand has said that the aged cannot 
"be transformed into sprightly adolescents and it 
is impossible to create a young man out of an old 
one, but it is quite within the bounds of possibility 



314 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

to prolong our term of youthfulness by ten or 
twenty years." Both Lorand and Metchnikoff be- 
lieve that man should not grow old at forty or fifty 
but should live to the age of ninety or one hundred 
years instead of dying at sixty or seventy, and both 
advocate the use of milk as an article of diet. 

It has been said that there is no article of diet 
which exerts so marked a protective influence upon 
our organs as mlk. By virtue of the absence of 
a large amount of extractive substances, milk does 
not tax the liver, kidneys and blood vessels with 
irritating matter. Milk does not form uric acid 
and can be taken advantageously by sufferers with 
gout, rheumatism and kidney trouble. It is an up- 
building food drink and of great value in cases of 
consumption and anaemia. Some persons possess 
an antipathy to milk which in its ordinary form can- 
not be well tolerated. In such cases the milk should 
be diluted about one-third with some alkaline mineral 
water, such as vichy-celestins, or possibly modified 
in regard to fat content and taken with or without 
vichy of lime water. For those who apparently 
cannot tolerate ordinary milk, the more easily di- 
gested buttermilk or sour milk, without cream, 
should be taken. 

Hot milk is a better and more healthful stimu- 
lating drink than tea, coffee or chocolate. It is 
valuable for breaking up a cold, opening the pores 
of the skin and increasing the circulation and can 
at times be used for a good substitute for alcohol. 
The ideal diet for men and women leading a sed- 
entary life is composed of milk, eggs and vege- 
tables — using the latter word in its broadest sense. 
Occasional digressions to avoid monotony and the 



MILK 315 

very temperate and incidental use of meat, will 
do the average person no harm; but the diet of 
every human being should be arranged both as 
regards quantity and quality with special refer- 
ence to the physical work to be performed and in 
harmony with the general mode of life. Over-eat- 
ing and over-drinking is a curse of the times. Men 
and women should not degenerate into dietetical 
faddists and bigoted extremists, but should take 
as food and drink that which is needed to sustain 
life effectively and is supplied for the purpose by 
Mother Nature, positively shunning the more that 
clogs but also avoiding the less that depletes. 



III. 

TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 

(CAFFEINE DRINKS) 

Nature of Certain So-called Temperance Drinks 

Tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate are generally 
classed as pleasurable, stimulating drinks, but they 
have become popular, not because of their pleasant 
taste but because of their stimulating action. Such 
so-called "temperance drinks" are used in quantity 
because they are "drugged" waters. 

Effect of Drugs and Stimulants 

The effect of drugs upon the cells of the human 
body is to stimulate them, to depress them or to 
change and destroy them. By stimulation the 
power or readiness of the cells to functionate is 
increased, by depression such power is decreased 
and cessation of the power to functionate causes 
paralysis. Many drugs have the effect of pro- 
ducing irritation which is anatomic rather than 
functional and tends toward a harmful change in 
cell structure. A stimulant is an agent which in- 
creases vital action in the organ to which it is ap- 
plied or in the system generally. It has been defined 
as "an agent which produces a quickly diffused 
and transient increase of vital energy and strength 
of action in the organism or some part of it." To 
stimulate means not to physiologically nurture and 
strengthen but to excite, spur onward and rouse or 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 317 

animate to more vigorous exertion by some pun- 
gent, persuasive or irritating motive and prolonged 
or excessive stimulation may result in depression 
or physical breakdown and paralysis. The word 
"stimulant" is derived from a word meaning a goad 
or a pointed instrument used to urge on a beast 
by the infliction of pain. To stimulate the human 
system is meant to spur or goad it forward to in- 
creased effort; to excite or irritate it to more ener- 
getic reaction by what must generally be considered 
as distressing and harmful abuse. A tonic is in- 
tended to increase strength by raising the tone of 
the system but a stimulant cannot, pathologically, 
be a tonic, for it does not build up but rather pro- 
vokes, incites and therefore weakens the system be- 
cause of the excessive and unnatural demands made 
upon it. In sickness a stimulant may function 
beneficially when used pathologically as an emer- 
gency measure, but in health the habitual use or 
immoderate use of any form of stimulant is fraught 
with much danger. No horse could work accept- 
ably to itself or its owner if persistently or abusively 
prodded with the spur or goad and lashed with the 
whip — and man is subject to the same laws of 
nature as any other living thing. 

There are certain stimulating drugs whose chief 
action is upon the central nervous system. Such 
drugs include caffeine, cocaine, nux vomica, strych- 
nine and atropine. The caffeine group consists of 
the three alkaloids : caffeine, theobromine and theo- 
phylline. They are purin bodies and are closely re- 
lated to Uric acid. Coffee contains caffeine; tea 
both caffeine and theophylline, and cocoa or choco- 
late, theobromine, and these alkaloid drugs of the 



318 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

caffeine group are what make such drinks popular. 
The effect of such drugs upon the nervous system 
is that of continued stimulation or excitation and 
their continued, excessive use overworks and wears 
out the body cells causing deterioration of both body 
and mind. Coffee, tea and kindred drinks are, 
therefore, stimulating irritants. Tea, in addition 
to its caffeine content, contains a large percentage 
of tannic acid, an astringent. One can form some 
idea of what the stomach of the excessive tea con- 
sumer has to contend with when he reflects that 
tannic acid is the essential element used in tanning 
leather. Many of the most bigoted advocates of 
temperance (which term has been corrupted and 
abused to mean alcohol abolitionists) are intemper- 
ate drinkers of tea or coffee and slaves to the drug 
caffeine. Many a person who condemns the tem- 
perate or occasional use of alcohol in any form, uses 
caffeine as a whip or goad to stimulate his mind 
and body to increased vital energy. Alcohol taken 
habitually or to excess, is positively injurious, but 
equally injurious to bodily health is the excessive, 
persistent use of caffeine, particularly when it is 
administered in the form of strong tea ignorantly 
prepared. There are towns in Britain where the 
children, fed primarily on bread with copious 
draughts of tea, are in such a deplorable physical 
condition, with dwarfed minds and emaciated 
frames, that one is tempted to prescribe mild pure 
European beer for them, even with its three per 
cent, of poisonous alcohol in lieu of their so-called 
harmless national drink, — drug-laden and abomin- 
ably made. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 319 

Sources of Caffeine 

The discovery by the inhabitiants of various 
countries of the value of some particular plant in 
making a stimulating beverage is rather interesting. 
Caffeine is found in plants growing in different 
parts of the world. In Arabia and Egypt the caf- 
feine-laden beverage is made from the roasted seeds 
of coffee; in Western Africa from the dried seeds 
of kola; in the Amazon region of South America, 
from guarana, a brittle mass made by pounding the 
seeds to a paste and drying by heat; in China and 
Japan it is generally made from tea; in Paraguay 
and Uruguay, from mate, the dried leaves and 
shoots of a species of ilex or holly. Having no 
caffeine plants, the inhabitants of Mexico and the 
West Indies have made their stimulating beverage 
from the fermented seeds of the chocolate plant 
which contains the close relative, theobromine. 
Bastedo says that mate contains about 1.3 per cent, 
caffeine, kola 1 to 2 per cent, and guarana 3 to 6 
per cent., the latter also containing much tannic 
acid. Commercial caffeine is usually made from 
damaged tea leaves; and citrated caffeine, used 
medicinally, is a mixture of equal parts of caffeine 
and citric acid. Most of our coffee comes from 
Erazil, our tea from Japan, China and India, and 
our chocolate from the West Indies. 

Caffeine and Tannic Content of Tea 

The average caffeine and tannic content of teas, 
according to Tatlock and Thompson, are stated as 
a percentage in the following table: 



Growth 


Tannin 


Caffeine 


Indian Teas, 


14.33 


3.45 


Ceylon Teas, 


12.29 


3.25 


China Teas, 


9.50 


3.00 



320 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The flavor of Chinese Teas is in general weaker 
but more delicate than that of Indian or Ceylon 
Teas, the best qualities being considered very fra- 
grant. 

According to Koenig, the tannic acid content and 
other constituents of black and green teas are: 

Nitrogen Theine Tannic Substance 

Tea Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 

Green, 4.78 1.7 16.8 

Black, 4.58 2.3 15.2 

Tea contains the following salts — an analysis of 
the ash: 

Per cent. Per cent. 

Potash, 37.50 Magnesia, 5.71 

Lime, 13.71 Iron Oxide, 4.47 

Soda, 8.01 Chlorine, 1.69 

Phosphoric Acid, 7.57 Manganese Oxide, 1.05 

Volatile essential oils in tea impart the flavor and 
odor. Green tea is made from the younger leaves 
and such tea contains more volatile oil, more tannic 
acid and less caffeine than black tea ; it is therefore, 
less stimulating and more astringent. Bannister 
made some tests on black teas that averaged 3.24 
per cent, of caffeine and 16.4 per cent, of tannic 
acid, while his tests on green teas gave an average 
of 2.33 per cent, of caffeine and 27.14 per cent, of 
tannic acid. It is claimed that in the preparation of 
tea leaves for the market, about half the tannic acid 
is lost and this may explain the greater variation in 
the findings of experts in regard to tannic acid con- 
tent of teas. 

Tannic acid is particularly injurious to the stom- 
ach; English investigators have found that it re- 
tards the digestion of starches. Roberts recom- 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 321 

mends that a small quantity of bicarbonate of soda 
be placed in the tea cup when the tea is taken and 
that it never be taken on an empty stomach. Tea 
should not be boiled as this hastens the solution of 
the tannic acid (deleterious to health) and drives 
off the flavoring oil. If tea is allowed to steep too 
long the beverage becomes deeply colored and rich 
in tannic acid. The tea which stands all day long 
in the tea pot — as often seen in Britain — is essen- 
tially a solution of tannic acid which would effec- 
tively tan hides into leather. The bitter taste of 
old and strong tea is due to the tannic acid passing 
into solution. Some teas run as high as 5 per cent, 
in caffeine and range from 2 to 5 per cent. ; mineral 
matter varies from 5 to 9 per cent., moisture 5 to 10 
per cent., and the balance is cellulose, resin, gums, 
pectin, protein, sugar, etc. 

Tea Adulteration 

The adulteration of tea with chemicals or foreign 
extraneous matter is seldom encountered in these 
days. There are some notable defects, however, oc- 
casionally met with, such as the percentage of stalk 
sold with the dried tea leaves. Dr. Besson of Basle 
has made very complete investigations in regard to 
the "stalk content" of teas with the following re- 
sults : 







Per cent. 


Average 


China Green Tea contained 


0.4 to 5.3 


3.1 


Foochow Tea 


<« 


4.1 to 17.5 


9.3 


Hankow Tea 


<< 


8.6 to 17.1 


10.9 


Java Tea 


<< 


4.4 to 29.9 


19.9 


Indian Tea 


«< 


11.5 to 37.4 


24.0 


Ceylon Tea 


<« 


5.8 to 43.4 


25.7 



322 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Analysis of Coffee 

Roasted coffee contains 0.6 to 2 per cent, of 
caffeine, or about one-half to one-third as much as 
tea — a fact not generally known. Caffeol, a volatile 
oil, is developed in roasting. It is the source of the 
flavor and aroma of the coffee and is so penetrating 
that a single drop of it will fill an average sized 
room with the coffee odor. Tannic acid appears in 
coffee as caffeotannic acid and is entirely different 
from the tannic acid of tea, for it is not an astrin- 
gent and does not precipitate albumin, gelatin and 
alkaloids ; it tends, however, to check digestion and 
retard absorption. The other ingredients of coffee 
are sugar, fat, protein, dextrine, fibre and mineral 
salts. 

Three sets of analyses of coffee for caffeine con- 
tent gave the following results: 

Arabian, .7 to 1.6 per cent. 

Liberian, 1.0 to 1.5 " " 

Sierra Leone, 1.52 to 1.7 " " 

The composition of coffee — when roasted — is 
according to Koenig: 

Ingredients Per cent. Ingredients Per cent. 

Protein, 12.64 Dextrine, 1.31 

Caffeine, 1.16 Tannic Acid, 4.65 

Fat, 13.85 Other carbohydrates, 39.88 

Sugar, 1.31 Cellulose, 18.07 

The ash content is stated as follows: 



Salt, 


Per cent. 


Salt, 


Per cent. 


Potash, 


61.47 


Sulphuric Acid, 


3.80 


Phosphoric Acid, 


13.39 


Iron, 


0.65 


Magnesia, 


9.69 


Silicic Acid, 


0.54 


Lime, 


6.19 







TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 323 
Use of Coffee and Tea 

The French Cafe au lait is half coffee infusion 
and half boiled milk. This beverage is only suit- 
able when not too much solid food is consumed at 
the same time, as in the French early breakfast; 
it is less suited to the more substantial American 
or British breakfast. Under the name "French 
Coffee," chicory is used as an adulterant. Roasted 
chicory has a much less pleasing flavor than coffee 
and is devoid of caffeine. Chicory, however, is not 
the harmless adulterant that it is generally sup- 
posed, for Swintz has shown that it has a "markedly 
unfavorable effect upon growth and development." 
As far as the stomach is concerned, coffee gen- 
erally causes much less injury than tea, especially 
where there is hyperacidity. Both tea and coffee 
cause an increase of blood pressure and should 
be forbidden in arteriosclerosis and heart weak- 
ness. Coffee is an antidote for certain poisons, such 
as opium and alcohol. Dr. Lorand advocates 
the use of hot cream or hot milk when coffee is 
taken and total abstinence in regard to thick, black 
coffee unless it be a very small cup for people with- 
out conscious nerves, taken at the end of a meal. 
He also adds, "Coffee, owing to its property of 
stimulating the intellectual activity and of remov- 
ing fatigue, is often greatly misused by brain- 
workers. While it does for a time brace one up for 
working, the work is paid for with interest by the 
wear and tear, so to speak, of the important organs 
of the body." Schumburg has proved that when the 
muscles have already become exhausted, caffeine 
does not have any effect. Coffees from which 
the caffeine has been extracted are on the market. 
Their use is undoubtedly much less harmful than 



324 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

straight coffee, but caffeine is not the only dele- 
terious ingredient in coffee, and there are drinkers 
of non-caffeine coffee who have experienced the ill 
and poisonous effects of coffee after drinking a few 
cups of the caffeine-freed beverage. 

It is well to keep in mind that the average family 
making tea and coffee will use almost twice as much 
coffee per cup as tea, although some people (Brit- 
ish) drink tea at times so strong that "it stands 
without a cup", and in New Orleans coffee is made 
black and of a syrupy consistency. Bastedo says 
that the amount of tea used in making a cup repre- 
sents 1 to 2 grains of caffeine and the coffee per 
cup 1% to 3 grains. Tea leaves, he says, contain 
far more caffeine than coffee, but much less tea is 
used per cup. Cushny says that a cup of coffee is 
equivalent to 1% to 3 grains of caffeine, and a cup 
of tea may be considered to contain the same 
amount of caffeine, so apparently Cushny likes his 
tea stronger than Bastedo, or else Bastedo used a 
tea cup for his tea and Cushny used the same sized 
coffee cup for both calculations. Hollingsworth 
says that the average cup of tea contains about 
1.5 grains of caffeine; an after-dinner cup of black 
coffee, the same amount; an average glass of cold 
green tea about 2 grains, and an average cupful of 
coffee with two-fifths hot milk, 2.5 grains of caf- 
feine. Such figures are, however, of little value un- 
less we know the strength of the solution and the 
size of the cup. Fortunately both tea and coffee, 
particularly the former, are being taken to-day very 
much weaker than formerly. The stronger the tea 
and coffee, the more injurious it will be to the sys- 
tem, the more poison will be absorbed and the 
greater will be the effect upon the nerves, heart, 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 325 

stomach, liver and kidneys. The majority of peo- 
ple crave a hot drink in the early morning. A hot 
drink is stimulating, cleansing and satisfying, hence 
the hot drinks in general use are taken, and to ob- 
tain the benefit of hot water, drugs which increase 
the degree of stimulation are taken with it. Coffee 
and tea are in the majority of cases used because 
they are the only available hot drinks ; hot water of 
itself is not very palatable and hot milk is seldom 
considered. The heat in the morning cup of coffee 
has been termed "coffee's good angel" and the caf- 
feine, tannic acid and volatile oils of tea and coffee 
have been termed the "bad demons" of the exhilarat- 
ing morning cup. 

Comparative Use of Coffee and Tea in Various Countries 

America is a great coffee-drinking and a low tea- 
drinking country, and Great Britain is a great tea- 
drinking and a low coffee-drinking country, as the 
following figures will show: 

Consumption Sn lbs. per head, per annum. 





Coffee 


Tea 


United States, 


11.5 


0.89 


Great Britain, 


1.0 


6.17 


Germany, 


6.7 


.11 


France, 


5.0 


.06 


Holland, 


14.5 


1.45 



New Zealanders among the white races hold the 
record for tea drinking, their consumption being 
7.45 lbs. of dry tea per head; then follows Australia 
with 6.83 lbs. 

The United States consumes nearly one-half the 
coffee of the world, although exceeded per person 
in consumption by Holland and Scandinavia. 
When we consider the tea consumption in the Far 



326 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

East the statement that "tea is the world's greatest 
drink, next to water" is probably true. Occidentals 
have never learned the art of making tea; as pre- 
pared by the Orientals it is far less injurious to 
health than the decoctions made from tea leaves 
by the Caucasian Race. 

Cocoa and Chocolate 

Cocoa which contains the drug theobromine of 
the caffeine group and was enthusiastically named 
by the celebrated Swedish scholar Linne "theo- 
broma" — a gift of the gods — is yearly becoming 
more popular as a beverage; in four years its con- 
sumption increased 70 per cent, in the United 
States, 61 per cent, in Germany and 40 per cent, 
throughout the world. The cocoa pulp contains ap- 
proximately 





Per cent. 




Per cent. 


Albuminoids, 




6 


Starch, 


7 


Alkaloids, 




2 


Coloring Matter, 


4 


Fat, 




2 


Tartaric Acid, 


3 


Sugars, 




6 







The following table by Koenig gives the results 
of his analyses of cocoa, free from oil: 

Substance, Per cent. Substance, Per cent. 

Protein, 20.43 Starches, 15.60 

Fat, 28.34 Other carbohydrates, 17.70 

Theobromine, 1.88 Cellulose, 5.37 

The composition of the Ash is reported as follows : 



Salts, 


Per cent. 


Salts, 


Per cent. 


Potash, 


31.43 


Iron Oxide, 


0.14 


Soda, 


1.33 


Phosphoric Acid, 


30.46 


Lime, 


5.07 


Sulphuric Acid, 


3.74 


Magnesia, 


16.26 


Chlorine, 


0.75 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 327 

Chocolate made from cocoa, according to Koenig, 
contains — 



Jubstance, 


Per cent. 


Substance, Per cent. 


Protein, 


6.27 


Sugar, 53.70 


Theobromine, 


0.62 


Starch, 4.07 


Fat, 


21.20 


Other carbohydrates, 5.59 


Tartaric Acid, 


1.36 


Cellulose, 1.67 



Chocolate is, therefore, theoretically a nutritious 
food and may possibly be used to advantage by 
those engaged in strenuous work, such as mountain 
climbing. It is fattening but not generally accept- 
able to those engaged in a sedentary occupation. 
It poisons some adults in a pronounced manner, 
causes skin eruptions, upsets digestion and retards 
the secretion of gastric juice and the motor func- 
tions, i. e. the emptying of the stomach. Neumann 
has proved that chocolate or cocoa detrimentally 
affects the absorption of the protein and the fats of 
food; if taken in quantity, it will cause headache 
with a depressing feeling of heaviness and abdo- 
minal discomfort; its continued use tends to cause 
dyspepsia. Chocolate has a high food value be- 
cause of its sugar content. Cocoa made with 
milk is nutritive, but so is coffee, and this is 
due to the milk in the beverage. Cocoa beans 
considered apart from the fat which they contain 
are not a prime food and are scarcely more entitled 
to the term than is tea or coffee, for cream (fat) 
can be used with coffee if one so elects. Sohn says 
that 60 per cent, of the protein in cocoa is unas- 
similable, and of the non-protein components, the 
fat alone is readily digestible. "We do not eat tea 
leaves and coffee grounds, but because we swallow 
ground cocoa beans, we regard them as food." 



328 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Chocolate or cocoa should never be given to young 
children, and it is too fat, rich and heavy for in- 
valids. Cocoa as a beverage has an action some- 
what similar to that of tea and coffee, but it does 
not possess the same exciting, stimulating action 
of caffeine on the nervous system and it may, there- 
fore, be taken (especially when made with milk) 
where coffee and tea produce wakefulness. The 
theobromine of cocoa stimulates both cardiac and 
voluntary muscles and has diuretic power ; it there- 
fore acts like caffeine upon the heart, kidneys and 
muscles, although kidney tolerance with cocoa is 
soon established so that the habitual cup is apt to 
result in the loss of its diuretic power. 

Mate 

, Mate, which is a tea made from the leaves of a 
kind of prickly holly growing in Paraguay and 
Southern Brazil, is less exciting to the nervous 
system than Oriental tea. French investigators 
say that it accelerates the circulation of the blood, 
diminishes fatigue consequent upon muscular exer- 
tion and also prevents the sensation of hunger with- 
out affecting the appetite." Koenig gives the con- 
tents of mate as follows : * 

Protein, 11.20 per cent. 

Theime, 0.89 " " 

Tannin, 6.89 " " 

Tannic Acid, 4.5 to 9.6 " " 

Mate, therefore, contains about half as much caf- 
feine as Oriental tea, and when brewed has the gen- 
eral properties of a weak tea. 

Effects of Caffeine Drinks Upon the System 

There is a great difference in the nature of the 
three great international non-alcoholic drinks. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 329 

With tea and coffee we drink an infusion of leaves 
and berries, but with cocoa the whole material is 
taken in a state of very fine suspension, and the 
cocoa bean, even with the fat extracted, has some 
nutritive value. Caffeine has no effect upon the 
peristaltic movements of the intestines, but coffee is 
somewhat of a laxative, while tea tends to consti- 
pate. The greater the tannic acid content of any of 
these beverages, the more pronounced becomes the 
resulting gastric and digestive disturbance. Caffeine 
and theophylline also affect the gastric action by 
causing irritation of the mucous membrane. Coffee, 
tea and kindred drinks do not lessen the tissue 
change of the human body, as has been claimed, 
but rather increase it, the amount of urea and car- 
bonic acid excreted being considerably augmented 
by their use; they act consistently, therefore, as 
drug stimulants and are void of nourishing and up- 
building power. 



CAFFEINE DIURESIS IN A RABBIT 


TIME 

IN 

MINUTES 


PERIOD 


-RELATIVE AMOUNT OF URINE PASSED- 


10 
20 
30 
40 
50 
60 
70 


A 

B 
C 
D 

E 
F 
G 


]]— NORMAL SECRETION 


—AFTER SMALL DOSE 








I AFTER 

1 LARGE DOSE 




1 




I 







Fig. 20. 



330 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

In their action on the kidneys, the members of 
the caffeine series of drugs stand pre-eminent, no 
other drug producing such a copious flow of urine 
as either caffeine or theobromine. The foregoing 
chart shows the Caffeine Diuresis in a rabbit. The 
amount of solids in urine was increased about 5 fold 
and the blood pressure was slightly lowered. 

The effect of caffeine upon the respiration is 
also vividly illustrated by the following diagram. 
The respiration of a rabbit having been slowed by 
morphine, caffeine was injected intravenously at 
A, the respiration being at once greatly accelerated. 




RESPIRATION OF A RABBIT ACCELERATED BY CAFFEINE 

Fig. 21. 

Caffeine as found in tea and coffee is chemically 
related to uric acid, and copious draughts of such 
beverages with heavy meals tend toward uric acid 
troubles and rheumatism. Caffeine stimulation is 
one of the most prevalent causes of headache and 
it is also popularly associated with biliousness. 
Professional tea tasters are melancholy examples 
of the deleterious effect of tea upon the human sys- 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 331 

tern. It has been reported (at this time of writing 
the authority and date for verification are not avail- 
able) that a European Government, many long 
years ago, divided a number of criminals con- 
demned to death into three squads, withheld all 
solid food and gave day after day to one squad 
cocoa only, to another tea, and to the third coffee. 
The report says that, contrary to expectations, the 
drinkers of cocoa succumbed first, being followed 
by the tea drinkers, with the coffee drinkers last. 

The effects of stimulating drugs of the caffeine 
group, as administered to the system in the form 
of popular beverages, have been studied by many 
learned investigators. After a fair dose of caffeine 
the mind seems to become more alert, the attention 
keener and the spirits brighter, hence tea is known 
as "the cup that cheers but not inebriates," and it 
is used as a favorite resort to brighten the gossip 
of an afternoon call or to remove the feeling of 
fatigue. Coffee, moreover, is quite generally used 
in many countries, including our own, as a morn- 
ing's "pick-me-up," a "bracer" or "wake-up" drink, 
lashing the mind and body forward to perform the 
tasks of the day. Caffeine stimulates the intel- 
lectual functions, renders the perceptions more 
acute and excites to activity. Kraepelin found that 
caffeine facilitated the reception of sensory im- 
pulses and the association of ideas, but the trans- 
mission of thought into action was retarded. His 
tests indicated that caffeine produced acceleration 
in arithmetical addition, retardation in speed of 
memorizing numbers and increase in speed of read- 
ing. He concludes, "The picture of the tea influence 
which we have secured agrees in all essential points 
with the experience of daily life. We know that 



332 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

tea and coffee increase our mental efficiency in a 
definite way and we use these as a means of over- 
coming mental fatigue. In the morning these 
drinks remove the last traces of sleepiness and in 
the evening, when we still have intellectual tasks to 
dispose of, they aid in keeping us awake. In large 
amounts and in the case of sensitive persons their 
ingestion delays sleep." 

Bastedo, writing of the toxicology of caffeine 
says that when a moderate dose of caffeine is taken, 
such as two or three times the accustomed amount 
ol coffee or tea, the brain and cord become over- 
active and there are increased reflex irritability, in- 
creased motor activity and impairment of the 
mental powers because ideas follow one another so 
rapidly as to prevent concentration of thought. The 
subject cannot concentrate his attention and is ex- 
citable, restless and unable to sit quietly. His mus- 
cles twitch and he may feel gastric (stomach) dis- 
comfort with oppressions about the heart and palpi- 
tation; his breathing may be deep but oppressive; 
confusion and headaches are common and noises in 
the head or a mild form or delirium may be exper- 
ienced. Larger doses may be accompanied by vomit- 
ing, convulsions, weak and irregular heart, low ar- 
terial pressure and collapse. Death takes place us- 
ually from failure of the heart muscle, but may be 
due to exhaustion of the respiratory center. Soll- 
mann and Pilcher report that alcohol increased 
the toxicity of large amounts of caffeine, though 
caffeine does not increase the toxicity of alcohol. 
This is reasonable, for alcohol, a narcotic, would be 
somewhat neutralized by caffeine, a stimulant; caf- 
feine taken in marked toxic doses abuses the body, 
expends its forces, dissipates its reserves; and if 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 333 

alcohol, a narcotic, is fed to a body suffering from 
extreme caffeine fatigue and ultimate exhaustion, 
the result must of necessity be particularly harmful. 

Many tests have demonstrated that caffeine tends 
to make ideas become clearer and thought flow 
more easily and rapidly, but not infrequently con- 
nected thought is rendered more difficult, as the im- 
pressions are apt to follow each other so rapidly 
and at such an abnormal pace that the attention 
seems to become distracted. 

Leistenstorfer, experimenting for the German 
Government, found in comparative tests that whole 
companies of soldiers could endure more prolonged 
and severe marches, if given tea and coffee, than 
those who did not receive such drinks, provided that 
they were all well supplied with food. If no food 
was supplied, fatigue appeared first in the tea and 
coffee drinkers. Therefore, tea and coffee increased 
the power for continuous physical work as long 
as the supply of nutritive material was ample, but 
caused early exhaustion when food was withheld. 
Schumburg also found that coffee and tea have no 
recuperative power over the muscles of a fatigued 
organism, except when taken with other foods, and 
Hellster, exercising before breakfast, found that 
the effect of taking tea was negligible. Larger 
quantities of caffeine generally cause headache and 
some confusion, and even a mild form of delirium 
may be elicited. 

Mechanical Tests to Determine the Effect of Caffeine 

The investigations of scientists since 1892 have 
generally demonstrated the stimulating effect of 
caffeine on ergographic performance, the drug 
being administered in such various forms as caf- 



334 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

feine, tea, coffee, kola, mate, guarana and theobro- 
mine. Only one investigation reported, failed to 
find an appreciable effect, but Fere affirms that 
the effect is only an acceleration of fatigue. Krae- 
pelin and Hoch have investigated the influence of 
the chief constituents of tea and found that both 
the caffeine and the essential oils have a stimulating 
effect. Rivers found that caffeine increased the 
speed of performance in typewriting, but had no 
influence on the accuracy. He was also the first 
investigator to fully appreciate the genuine and 
practical importance of thoroughly controlling the 
psychological factors that inevitably play an im- 
portant role in all such experiments. Many tests 
have shown that fair-minded subjects, fed with 
sugar capsules, have been somewhat stimulated in 
their work, acting under the impression that the 
capsules contained caffeine. Rivers' general con- 
clusions are that caffeine increases the capacity for 
both muscular and mental work. When taken to 
excess, the stimulating action may be so transitory 
and followed by so great a decrease that it may 
legitimately be spoken of as an acceleration of 
fatigue. "The experiment suggests strongly that 
caffeine is a dangerous remedy as a stimulant in 
cases of prolonged fatigue or of that enhanced 
tendency to fatigue which is the characteristic fea- 
ture of neurasthenia." 

The Hollingsworth Tests of Caffeine Effect 

Hollingsworth, instructor in psychology at Co- 
lumbia University has made the most thorough in- 
vestigation recorded, in regard to the effect of caf- 
feine upon the human mental and motor processes. 
These tests were financed by the Coco-Cola Com- 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 335 

pany of Atlanta, Ga., which would seem to indicate 
that caffeine is not unknown in the production of 
"healthful" and popular soda fountain beverages. 
The Hollingsworth Tests were conducted with 16 
subjects, ten men and six women, and occupied a 
period of forty days. The subjects were teachers 
and students or wives of teachers and students and 
varied in age from 19 to 39 for the males and 27 
to 39 for the females. Of the 16 subjects, three 
were abstainers from caffeine, three were occasional 
and two were moderate users and eight were regu- 
lar drinkers of coffee and tea. There was a great 
variation in the weight of the subjects, viz. 105 
to 193 lbs., and it has been proven that the effect 
of caffeine in regard to certain processes varies 
almost directly as the weight of the user. In order 
to reduce to a minimum the factor of sensory or 
psychical stimulation, caffeine and an inactive sub- 
stance (sugar of milk) was administered to all 
subjects in capsule form, and both substances — the 
caffeine and the control — presented the same ap- 
pearance, neither substance being tasted. The fact 
that the caffeine days were thus unrecognizable 
helped to reduce the disturbing influences of ex- 
citement and interest. These factors were further 
reduced by administering to all subjects the con- 
trol, or sugar of milk doses, for one week without 
their knowledge. 

The Hollingsworth Tests and the general results 
obtained can be briefly described as follows: — 

Tapping Test ( 1 ) . 

Each subject was required to execute 400 taps 
as rapidly as possible with a metal rod on a solidlv 
planted metal base, each tap making an electric 
contact, automatically recorded. 



836 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

In this test the average normal rating was 99.1. 
The caffeine was administered in the middle of 
the morning, at noon, 3:10 P. M. and 5.30 P. M. 
Tests gave the following average results for vari- 
able doses: 

1 gr. Caffeine, 97.5 

2 gr. " 97.1 
4 gr. " 98.6 
6 gr. " 95.6 

The average caffeine numeral was 97.2 and the 
average reduced time, due to caffeine stimulation, 
1.9 per cent. When the caffeine was taken at 
1 :00 P. M. with lunch, the effect on the 3:10 P. M. 
test was not especially marked except with the 6 
grain doses. The 5 :30 P. M. test showed consider- 
able effect, varying in extent with the size of the 
dose. 



1 gr. Caffeine 


resulted 


in 


6.5 


per 


cent. 


reduced time 


2 gr. 




<« 


it 


3.6 


it 


a 


tt tt 


3 gr. 




" 


tt 


4.8 


tt 


" 


tt 


4 gr. 




a 


" 


10.1 


tt 


a 


tt tt 


6 gr. 




<( 


<t 


13.8 


tt 


'• 


rr tt 


Average Caffeine 


doses, 




7.7 


tt 


a 


tt tt 



When caffeine was taken at 1.45 P. M., or two 
hours after eating an early lunch, the following re- 
sults were obtained at each of two afternoon test 
periods : 





Percentage < 


}f Reduced Time 




3:10 P.M. 


5:30 P.M. 


1 gr. Caffeine, 


3.56 


0.18 


2 gr. 


3.35 


3.17 


3 gr. 


2.86 


2.92 


4 gr. 


3.15 


1.57 


6 gr. " 


1.17 


6.55 


Average Caffeine 


Tests, 2.82 


2.88 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 337 

At 7:45 the next morning the subjects taking 
the large 4 and 6 grain doses showed the effect of 
reaction from over-stimulation or fatigue and their 
increased time on the Tests was 1.36 per cent. 
Comparing the work done after a dose of caffeine 
on any given day, with the work done on that same 
day before the administration of the dose we find : 

Difference 
Before After Per cent. 

4 Sugar of Milk or pseudo- 
caffeine subjects, 1.014 .992 .022 

3 subjects in one squad given 

1 to 6 grains of caffeine, .986 .932 .054 

5 subjects in a separate squad 

given 1 to 6 grains caffeine .995 .968 .027 

Apparently the psychical effect plays an import- 
ant part in all such tests as the above figures show. 

Hollingsworth's summary of these Tapping or 
Motor Tests are: 

(a) That the typical caffeine effect on a motor process 

seems to be a stimulation which is sometimes 
preceded by a brief and slight initial retardation. 

(b) The magnitude of this stimulation varies directly with 

the size of the dose, and is relatively slight when 
the caffeine is taken in the forenoon. 

(c) The effect begins 45 to 90 minutes after the admin- 

istration of the dose, the period being shorter for 
large doses and longer when the dose is taken 
with food. 

(d) The effect persists for from 1 to 2 hours for doses 

of 1 to 3 grains, and as long as 4.5 hours for 
6 grains. 

It was found that giving 6 grain capsules, after 
days of abstinence from caffeine, produced "a great 
irregularity of performance, six of the subsequent 



838 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



trials breaking all of the morning records and three 
of these being among the poorest records of the 
day. The general tendency is toward stimulation, 
but this stimulation is mixed with an irregularity 
of performance" or what can be fittingly termed 
erraticalness and instability. 

Co-Ordination Test (2-3). 

The Three-Hole Test for combined accuracy and 
speed was used and this test includes along with the 
factor of steadiness and rapidity, which are essen- 
tially motor or physiological, the more strictly 
mental factor of co-ordination. The test involves 
the insertion of a rod into each of three holes, suc- 
cessively, as rapidly as possible until 100 insertions 
have been made and time recorded. The effect of 
small amounts of caffeine was stimulation, while 
that of large amounts was retardation. 

EFFECT OF CAFFEINE ON SPEED OF TYPEWRITING 

HOLLINGWORTH TESTS 
200 





190 


V) 

Id 


180 


»- 




D 
Z 


170 


? 






160 


2. 




2 


150 


H 




I 


140 


130 


Ul 




_j 




< 

() 


120 


W 






110 



100 















DURING 


NOTE 
THE FIRST PART OF 


THE TEST 


SMALL 




s 








THE CURVES CROSS AT THE POINT WHERE 
3 GR, WAS USED'.WITH LARGER DOSES OF 
CAFFEINE THE TYPING SPEED WAS LESS THAN 
WITHOUT CAFFEINE.THE GENERAL IMPROVE- 
MENT IN PERFORMANCE HEREIN SHOWN AS 
THE TEST CONTINUED IS DUE TO PRACTICE 
AND EXPERIENCE 




s 


\ 










o 


\ 












^ 




^ 














































s^ 


» N 












































--- 


»^ 


















"^ 
































X 



























































































1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 
NORMAL (N0N-CAFFE1NE).DAYS SHOWN BY SOUD LINE. 
CAFFEINE DAYS SHOWN BY BROKEN LINE. 

Fig. 22. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 339 

DOSES OF CAFFEINE 

Normal 1 gr. 2 gr. 3 gr. 4 gr. 5 gr. 6 gr. 

Squad 1, 1.019 1.013 1.004 1.008 1.012 1.053 

Squad 2, .987 .953 .964 .979 1.000 1.028 

In the typewriting tests the speed of performance 
was quickened by small doses of caffeine (1 to 3 
gr. ) and retarded by larger amounts ( 4 to 6 gr. ) 

Color Naming Test (4). 
The first of the Perception and Association Tests 
was designed to measure the speed with which the 
name or idea can be brought to consciousness upon 
the sight of an object, which in this case was a 
colored card. This series of tests showed that 
there is a clear indication of stimulation from the 
use of caffeine for the whole range of doses em- 
ployed. This stimulation is more apparent after 
the smaller doses than after the larger. 

Test of Naming Opposites (5). 
This test covered the association of one idea with 
another specific idea, and as used, a list of 50 ad- 
jectives were given to the subject who was required 
to promptly name aloud a word of opposite mean- 
ing, the total time of the test being recorded. The 
words used in this test were such as : 

Loud Fertile 

Slovenly Wise 

Innocent Masculine 

Broad Beautiful, etc. 

The tests showed that the influence of caffeine 
is stimulating. The amount varies from 15 per 
cent, absolute stimulation to mere counterbalance 
of a normal fatigue. The greatest effect resulted 
from small doses. The magnitude of the caffeine 



340 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

influence varied inversely with the body weight and 
was relatively slight when the dose was taken at 
10.30 A. M. ; somewhat greater when taken with the 
mid-day lunch and still greater when taken in the 
middle of the afternoon without food. 

Calculation Test (6). 
This test required the association of an idea with 
a specific task or situation which called for an ap- 
propriate and immediate response. In conducting 
this test, cards were used containing 50 two-place 
numbers between 20 and 80, all numbers ending in 
being omitted. These 50 numbers were in random 
order and each number occurred but once in a list. 
The subject was required to take each card and add 
17 mentally to each number. The time required to 
perform the fifty additions correctly was carefully 
measured. This test showed that there was a most 
pronounced stimulation following the use of caf- 
feine. 

Discrimination and Choice Reaction (7). 
This test required that the subject press a tele- 
graph key in circuit with an electric buzzer upon 
the appearance of certain specified colored discs 
which appeared at random with other colored discs ; 
the time being recorded by a pendulum chronoscope, 
between the appearance of a certain colored disc 
and the pressing of the key. This test indicated 
that small amounts of caffeine tended to produce 
retardation in discrimination time; this retardation 
being accompanied by a greater number of false re- 
actions. Larger amounts of caffeine produced, 
within two hours after the dose, a discrimination so 
great that the retardation following small doses 
does not appear. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 341 

Cancellation Test (8). 

This test was intended to cover both attention 
and discrimination and consisted of crossing out 
figures on a printed sheet. The general effect of 
the use of caffeine was stimulation for large doses, 
but small doses showed retardation. Moreover, the 
caffeine influence was not in evidence until several 
hours had elapsed after the administration of the 
dose. 

Discrimination and Illusion (9). 

The well-known size-weight Illusion Test was 
employed, 14 cylindrical weights of the same size 
being used, differing in weight from 15 to 80 grams 
by increments of 5 grams. Each subject was re- 
quired to select one of the cylindrical weights sup- 
posed to be equal to that of a constant standard 
block which was several times the size of the weights 
constituting the series. The use of caffeine had no 
effect upon the accuracy of judgment displayed by 
the various subjects. 

Steadiness Test (10). 
This test was designed to record the steadiness 
with which the individual could hold the out- 
stretched arm, holding horizontally a metal rod of 
small diameter in a larger hole formed in a brass 
plate. When the rod moved and touched any part 
of the brass plate an electric contact was made and 
the contact recorded automatically. When caffeine 
was administered at 10:30 A. M. the average con- 
tacts per minute for tests conducted at noon, 3:10 
P. M. and 5 :30 P. M. were : 



Normal (no caffeine), 


1.46 


Caffeine, 1-2 grs., 


2.34 


Caffeine, 4-6 grs., 


1.60 



342 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

When doses of caffeine were given with the lunch 
at 1 P. M. the average for the two afternoon read- 
ings, as compared with the normal control, were: 

Normal (no caffeine), 1.40 

Caffeine, 1-2 grs., 1.89 

Caffeine, 3-4 grs:, 1.30 

Caffeine, 6 grs., 1.25 

When lunch was eaten at 11:45 A. M. and caf- 
feine was given at 1 :45 P. M. then the average for 
the 3:10 P. M. and 5:30 P. M. tests were: 

Normal (no caffeine), 2.81 

Caffeine, 1-2 grs., 3.30 

Caffeine, 3-4 grs., 3.03 

Caffeine, 6 grs., 8.20 

At 5:30 P. M. the average of two subjects, 
taking 6 grains of caffeine, showed 12.10 contracts 
per minute or 4.06 times as much unsteadiness as 
the ten controls or sugar subjects. 

The detrimental effect of large doses of caffeine 
on steadiness and nerve stability is shown in the 
tests conducted with a smaller hole in the brass 
plate, caffeine being given twice per day, just 
before the 3:10 P. M. and 5:30 P. M. tests: 

Number of Contacts per Minute 

No caffeine days, 

Syrup days, 

Small doses of caffeine 

with syrup, 
6 grs. caffeine with syrup, 

Commenting on these results, Hollingsworth 
says, "After 1-4 grains of caffeine, a slight nervous- 
ness ensues which is not apparent until several hours 
after the dose. After 6 grains there is pronounced 



^oon 


3:10 P.M. 


5:30 P.M. 


10.5 


12.4 


11.4 


9.5 


11.5 


10.5 


11.5 


10.6 


13.0 


9.4 


18.4 


28.0 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 343 

unsteadiness which begins to be manifested within 
an hour or so after the dose, but which is still 
greater after 3-4 hours. Such unsteadiness as is 
produced is less clearly shown when the caffeine is 
taken in the forenoon or at lunch time, than when 
it is administered in the afternoon, unaccompanied 
by food. These results are exactly paralleled by 
the influences of caffeine on the quality and 
quantity of sleep and suggest an intimate relation- 
ship between the measurable tremor produced by 
caffeine on a given muscle group and the evident 
nervous excitement that is responsible for the in- 
somnia produced by large doses of the same sub- 
stance." 

Effect On Sleep (11-12). 
The average normal sleep period of the subjects 
was 7.62 hours. The effect of the use of caffeine 
was as follows : Number of Hours Sleep. 

Caffeine Doses, 1-2 grs. 3-4 grs. 6 grs. Average 

Morning Dose, 7.46 

Lunch Dose, 7.57 

Afternoon Dose, 7.38 

Average, 7.47 

Large doses of caffeine induce marked sleep im- 
pairment. The effects are greatest when the dose is 
taken on an empty stomach or without food sub- 
stances and when it is taken on successive days. 
The quality as well as the quantity of sleep is also 
detrimentally affected. 

General Health. (H oiling sworth Tests) 

In a test of this kind, covering 40 days, the 

regular regime of life of the subjects and their 

abstinence from all drugs (except caffeine during 

tests) tea, coffee, tobacco, chocolate, cocoa, soda- 



7.57 


7.07 


7.37 


7.33 


6.40 


6.90 


7.00 


6.30 


6.88 


7.30 


6.59 


7.05 



344 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

fountain drinks, alcoholic drinks, would make for 
health and good spirits. All were compelled to 
keep regular hours for eating and sleeping and dis- 
sipation of every kind was avoided. Notwithstand- 
ing these ideal conditions, headaches, poor sleep, 
irritability, and nervousness were prevalent in sub- 
jects taking 4 grains of caffeine or over and 
dizziness, perspiration, throat-trouble, feverishness, 
heart thumpings, numbness and stomach pains 
were experienced by some. These symptoms of 
deleterious drug action were evidenced in slight 
women after the administration of 2 or 3 grains of 
caffeine. The fact that some of the subjects felt 
badly and experienced headache on control days 
(days without caffeine) indicates that the drug has 
a subtle, delayed or accumulative action and, more- 
over, it also suggests psychological complication. 
If an average person fed with a capsule containing 
a drug for several days, experiences distress, the 
continuance of the capsule, even if it contains sugar, 
will often tend to produce a reaction of pain; on 
the reverse side we know that pills or tablets of salt 
or sugar, possessing no healing virtue, have been 
credited with marvelous cures, due entirely to the 
psychological effect of suggestion. 

There is a general correlation between sleep- 
quantity and intensity — and general health. The 
two principal factors which seem to modify the 
degree of the caffeine influence are bodily weight 
and the presence of food in the stomach at the time 
of the dose. All subjects — men and women — were 
detrimentally affected by caffeine administered in 
large doses, and it was not beneficial to any of them 
at any time. Caffeine increases the capacity for 
work, but this is a genuine drug effect, and this in- 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 345 

creased capacity is obtained by the sacrifice of well- 
being. 

The following table gives a general summary of 
this most interesting and complete series of tests : 



H 

„ B 
W o 



33 


03 


tf 


- 


O 




£ 




co 


e3 


O 


a 


55 


ph 





03 




u 


c 


fl 


1— 1 


o 




ffl 


i 


03 

p 




o 


H 


E 


co 


03 


b£ 


03 




CO 
O 


h-1 


Q 


s 


co 


3 


03 




CO 


tS 


O 


03 


Q 


r _^ 


CO 




<u 


<3 


co 


5 


O 


CO 


Q 




CO 


u 


4-> 


*H 


CO 


3 


03 


S3 


H 


£ 


<+H 




o 


4-J 




CO 

U 

H 


6 




CO 




CO 




03 




03 




O 




h 




Ph 



o o 

CM CO 



?— ( 

I— I 

o 



CO P3 



co O 



CO CO 






T3 g 

03 O 

03 -rt 

P* la 

CO B 

4J o 

£ o 



.a ^ 

§ g ^ 

£ CO 
CU -cq 

O TO 

03 * CM 



«3 ce 



50 — 
.5 'g 



p< £ 

co 03 



03 



^ O 



CO 

Pi T< 



c3 

■a 

03 



43 »o 

CM <M 



pi. <U CO CO CO CO 

t-1 



O 8 co co co O 
h4 



CO a; CO CO CO Ph 



p2 43 a a 



cj .2 



B 
O 

4-3 

CJ 

o 



CO 



^ «5 © N 



B ° 
O ^ 



co £; 



co 



o £3 



5 S 



> 



a-'S 



co -^ & •£ 

03 r3,03 rQ 

flew C 

W *> 2 '£ 
« &«* w 

Oj « 03 0) 



»3 



a <v 

I s - 

0) 03 






50 T3 

§ "S s 



C3 '*' r/-; 03 

U ^ CO 

03 
N 

CO 



B 
03 
B 

cr 

03 
03 

CO 



co a o h n 



B 






O 

— 




• 


2 


n 


'eS 




03 


j_i 


3 


u 


03 

B 


O 

CO 


'o 


CO 


A 


03 


< 


CJ 


o 






03 S 
J= O 






M6 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

General Summing Up of Effects of Caffeine 

Caffeine taken in the form of coffee or tea is apt 
to be more powerful and harmful than when taken 
as a pure drug, for both coffee and tea, particularly 
the latter, contain other ingredients positively dele- 
terious to health. The Hollingsworth tests have 
demonstrated that caffeine, under certain con- 
ditions, improves both the mental and motor pro- 
cesses of an individual, but this is obtained at the 
sacrifice of nerve stability and general physical 
well-being. Caffeine, therefore, acts as a true 
stimulant, i. e., as a whip or goad which lashes or 
prods the system to greater effort and leaves the 
pain of the cutting lash and the wound of the goad. 
Caffeine tends to urge one to the expenditure of 
■effort greater than one's system could normally and 
habitually withstand. It does not make strength or 
give energy to meet unusual demands, but it urges 
the expenditure and dissipation of reserve force. 
Caffeine, therefore, in harmony with all stimulating 
drugs is a tyrant forcing its slaves and victims to 
unnatural efforts. The nervousness, headache and 
inability to sleep, resulting from coffee, are indica- 
tive of the expenditure of normal nerve force, the 
dissipation of reserve power and resultant nerve or 
energy poverty. To recuperate, the body must rest 
and be fed with nourishing, energy-creating and 
nerve-building foods. Alcohol lessens one's ca- 
pacity for work, caffeine increases it; alcohol is a 
narcotic and in sufficient doses produces sleep; 
whereas, caffeine is a stimulant and makes for wake- 
fulness and activity. Both are poisons and both 
are injurious to the human body. Alcohol be- 
muddles the brain, slows it down after a temporary 
and apparent exhilaration and robs it of its power. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 347 

Caffeine lashes the brain to action, forces it beyond 
its natural power, destroys the speed-governor 
and ultimately results in complete nerve collapse. 

In the "race of life," alcohol tends to act as a 
heavy dead load, lessening one's power for progress 
and achievement. It is a veritable millstone of 
pernicious habit deadening one's natural energy 
and dragging its victims to earth. Caffeine tends 
to act as a goad urging one by spur, lash, abuse and 
excitability to unnatural efforts. It is an un- 
stabilizer, it drives to a "break" and forces its 
victims "into the air" of physical collapse, nervous 
prostration and neurasthenia. Irritability, excita- 
bility and passion are stages of insanity, and caf- 
feine as well as alcohol claims its victims of diseased 
and unbalanced mentality. 

Effect of Caffeine on Progeny. 

Much has been said and written of the effect of 
alcoholism on offspring, but no thorough investiga- 
tions seem to have been made on the effect of the 
excessive and habitual use of caffeine on progeny. 
It is very possible that the abuse of the nervous 
system of parents for many generations will have a 
most pronounced effect upon the nerves and dis- 
position of the young. The civilized races are be- 
coming more and more nervous because of their 
unnatural modes of life, .and any drug habit that 
tends to increase this condition of nervous in- 
stability or weakened nerve energy is not only un- 
fortunate, but vicious. Biological laws are im- 
mutable and operate heartlessly when fundamental 
and eternal principles are either ignorantly or 
maliciously ignored. 



848 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Effect of Drugs Varies with Individuals 

The variations in individual susceptibility to tea, 
coffee and cocoa and the extent of toleration 
through habitual use are most marked. Any person 
who permits himself to get into a condition so that 
he cannot do acceptable work without drugged 
drinks and, therefore, day after day takes caffeine 
in quantity in the form of tea and coffee, is a victim 
of a pernicious drug habit and is drawing upon his 
reserve forces in a vicious manner and to a deplor- 
able extent. The whip may be appropriate for the 
lazy, but not for the tired, the over-worked and the 
undersized horse with the killing heavy load. 

It is too much to claim that the use of tea and 
coffee should be absolutely tabooed. As alchohol 
can be used at times to advantage, so can the drug 
caffeine. It is true, however, that the majority of 
people would be better without either, and all who 
find themselves strongly stimulated by caffeine 
should exercise the part of wisdom and limit its use 
to occasions which can be classified as of an 
emergency character, when uncommon demands 
are made upon the endurance of the mind and body 
and when, for a time, hygienic considerations have 
to be ignored. If young people, and those in the 
vigor of maturity, would postpone the formation of 
the caffeine (tea, coffee, cocoa) habit, they would 
have one more resource when the pressure of ad- 
vancing life becomes severe and their tasks seem at 
times greater than their systems can cope with. 

No Food Value in Coffee and Tea 

Tea and coffee of themselves have absolutely no 
food value; when mixed with cream, milk or sugar 
they possess only the food value of such added in- 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 349 

gredients. In many cases, however, cream and 
sugar, particularly the former, added to caffeine 
drinks, result in a more protracted digestive and 
constitutional disturbance, all of which varies with 
the individual. The more water we take with our 
tea, coffee and cocoa the healthier the drink, just as 
the more water we drink with an alcoholic spirit the 
healthier the drink. Water is what the system 
needs and demands, not tea, coffee, cocoa, con- 
cocted soft-drinks, soda fountain products, beer, 
wine, whisky or any form of spirits. 

Inconsistency of Present Prohibition Tendencies 

The temperance advocate who preaches the pro- 
hibition of a poisonous beverage should practice 
temperance or prohibition consistently. Why select 
for condemnation or prohibitive legislation, a drink 
containing about three per cent, of poisonous 
alcohol, such as beer, which when moderately and 
occasionally used has, under certain conditions, 
some nutritive value and never consider a drink 
made from leaves containing over three per cent, 
of a deadly drug, injurious aromatic oils 9 and about 
five times as much of a powerful, deleterious 
astringent. More lives have probably been "shrunk 
up" in the aggregate by excessive tea drinking than 
have been ruined by pure, mild and well made beer, 
taken like tea under proper home surroundings. 
Who can estimate the horrible effects of "soda 
water" fountains, drug store "drugged" drinks, and 
bottled soft and so-called harmless drinks, upon the 
children and youth of this country? Alcoholism is 
a horrible curse inflicted by human beings upon 
themselves. It cannot be too severely condemned; 
but other drinks have lowered the vitalitv and 



850 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

virility of mankind and polluted and poisoned the 
body probably quite as much as alcohol. Is not the 
saloon the greatest curse of alcoholism, and the 
cause of the habit of unnecessary, senseless and so- 
called social drinking? If alcohol were served as a 
mild solution only with food, at home or in licensed 
hotels — i. e., travellers' homes — or administered 
pathologically, would not three-fourths of its crime 
be eliminated? A concealed bar, serving alcoholic 
spirits indiscriminately, is as bad as an opium den 
and should be removed, but "law" should be con- 
sistent and based on the whole truth and not on a 
small part of it, and the dignity and liberty of man 
and the God-like attributes of the human mind 
should be respected. Men need to be shown the 
truth, educated to the knowledge of the full truth 
and not shackled and robbed of their individuality 
by hysterical legislation and fanatically conceived 
and agitated laws ; but if prohibition ( positively un- 
American) is to be considered, why not make it 
affect and cover the drugged drinks of the so-called 
reformer and alcohol abolitionists? Why should 
a mild alcoholic drink which tends under ordinary 
conditions to make one stupid and inefficient be out- 
lawed, while caffeine drinks which excite and drive 
one onward to the collapse of the nervous system 
and heart and to a mental break through vicious ex- 
hilaration, are tolerated as a "temperance" and, 
therefore, desirable beverage. Is it not incon- 
sistent to call one poison a National Menace and 
another a needed National Stimulant? Both can 
be used pathologically at times with benefit; but 
both used habitually and to excess are detrimental 
to the human system, health and happiness. If one 
is inclined to "reform" the world by attempting the 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, CHOCOLATE 351 

impossible task of ridding it of the narcotic alcohol, 
why not turn the searchlight of unbiased inquiry 
upon the deleterious effect of caffeine and its allied 
stimulating drugs, and with the harm caused by the 
intemperate use of each in this impartial scale of 
science, it is extremely difficult to foretell which side 
of the scales would hang low. 

COMPOSITION AND NOURISHMENT OF NON- 
ALCOHOLIC DRINKS 



-C W3 t! « 



Ts^cc W r M (fi 10 5 

C C u nj "Taj ajo)5* 



BEVERAGES S ' * S -^-gS^S *% * o 'o * 



Of & bo J> Q- DhO Ee<0 OO P-hO Oh 



Cocoa, 1 cup 227 .77 37.2 144.4 97.8 279 123 

Ingredients: 
1 h. tsp. cocoa, 
1 h. tsp. sugar, 
% c. milk 
1 tbsp. cream 

Coffee or Tea, 1 cup 246 .88 11.5 71.1 73.1 156 64 
Ingredients: 
14 c. milk 

1 tbsp. cream 

2 cubes sugar 
Coffee or tea 

Egg Lemonade, 1 large 314 .82 27.5 48.8 173.6 250 80 
Ingred ents : glass 

1 egg 

2 h. tbsp. sugar 

2 tbsp. lemon juice 
% c. water 
Lemonade with white of egg, 

1 large 297 .84 16.8 .7 173.6 191 64 
Ingredients: glass 

White 1 egg 
2 h. tbsp. sugar 
2 tbsp. lemon juice 
%c. water 
Lemonade— plan, 1 glass 264 .83 .. ..173.6 174 66 

Ingredients: 
2 h. tbsp sugar 
2 tbsp. lemon juice 
%c. water 
Malted Milk, 1 cup 235 .81 39.8 94.1 86.9 221 94 

Ingredients: 

1 h. tbsp. malted milk 
% c. milk 



IV 



OILS 

THERE are a great variety of unctuous, com- 
bustible, liquid substances of diverse chemi- 
cal character not miscible with water which 
are known as oils, a designation which embraces the 
fixed or fatty oils, such as olive oil, the soft fats 
which may be fluid in their country of origin, such as 
cocoanut oil and palm oil, the odoriferous, ethereal 
or essential oils, and the fluid, mineral hydrocarbons 
found in nature or obtained from natural products 
by destructive distillation. No sharp distinction can 
be made between fatty oils and fats, but the term 
4 'oil" is generally applied to substances of this class 
which are fluid, due to their large olein content, at a 
temperature below 70° F.; and the term "fat" 
covers similar matter which, owing to large stearin 
and palmitin content, remains solid at higher 
temperatures. Oils can be divided into two prime 
classifications, viz.: vegetable and animal, and the 
latter can be further subdivided into marine-animal 
and terrestrial-animal oils. 

Oils, although possessed of all the characteristics 
of liquids, and with viscosity which permits some of 
them to flow very easily, are not used by the human 
body as beverages to quench the thirst; and pure 
oils, having no water content (for they are in- 
soluble in water), when edible and taken into the 
body, must be considered either as "fuel food" or 
possessing medicinal virtue. There are many vege- 



OILS 3.53 

table oils considered edible, and many vegetable and 
animal fats, which are liquefied at higher tempera- 
tures, are used as food. Animal oils, both marine and 
terrestrial, are generally used for manufacturing, 
lubricating or fuel purposes, with the exception of 
Cod Liver oil and its adulterants or substitutes, 
which are used by man medicinally. 

Vegetable Edible Oils 

Vegetable oils are divided into classes designated 
as Drying, Semi-drying and Non-drying, based on 
the power of absorbing oxygen on exposure to the 
air. The following is a list of vegetable oils that 
are generally classed as edible : 

Name of Oil Type Yield, Per Cent. 

Sunflower Drying 21-22 

Poppy Seed " 41-50 

Soja Bean 

Maize; Corn 

Beech nut 

Kapok 

Cotton Seed 

Sesame 

Brazil nut 

Arachis (ground nut) 

Hazel nut 

Olive 

Ben 

Grape Seed 

Edible vegetable oils are highly nutritious, in 
the sense that they afford as fats to a greater degree 
than any other kind of food products, the element 
necessary to the production of heat and energy. 
The number of calories in one gram of edible oil is 
9.3. Stohmann's figures for the heat or food value 
of certain oils and fats are : 



Semi-Drying 




<< 


' 6-10 


<i 


43-45 


«< 


30-32 


<< 


24-26 


u 


50-57 


{( 




N on- Drying 


43-45 


(< 


50-60 


(< 


40-60 


tt 


35-36 


« 


10-20 



354 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Olive Oil, 


9.384 Cal. per Gr. 


Animal Fat, 


9.372 " " " 


Butter Fat, 


9.179 " 


Average, 


9.312 " 



When we consider that the food value of protein, 
sugar or starch is only 4.1 Cal. per Gr. it will be 
seen that edible oils are two and one quarter times 
as valuable in the production of heat and energy as 
our most generally used items of diet, and they are, 
therefore, concentrated foods. 

Wiley says, "The use of edible vegetable oils is 
also advisable for hygienic purposes. They are 
readily assimilated and digested, and they produce 
a physical effect upon the process of digestion which 
is a matter of importance. " Edible oils cannot be 
very generally used and can never form a very im- 
portant part of one's diet. They cannot be taken as 
one would any other form of liquid, and they are 
not readily usable except in conjunction with other 
condiments as salad dressing; but as a base for 
salad dressing, olive oil and the other edible 
vegetable oils are used most extensively. Edible 
oils may also at times be used to advantage in lieu 
of animal fats in cooking, but products that are 
fried or boiled in oil, notwithstanding what may be 
said in their favor, are not to be recommended for 
delicate stomachs or for the average person leading 
a sedentary life. 

Olive oil, because of its relative palatability, 
flavor, nutritive power and abundance, has been 
from the earliest historical times and remains to- 
day, the most important of all edible oils. By 
reason of its value and its commanding high price, 
there are few, if any, substances that have been sub- 
jected to such a systematic and extensive adultera- 



OILS 355 

tion as Olive oil. Nearly all edible vegetable oils 
have the light amber color and general character- 
istics of Olive oil and adulterations are very difficult 
to detect. 

In the United States the principal adulteration 
of Olive oil is with cottonseed oil, which oil, when 
subjected to the most careful refining processes can 
be offered at a price probably not greater than 20 
per cent, of that of high grade Olive oil. Cotton- 
seed oil adulteration of Olive oil often extends to 
complete substitution, cottonseed oil being repre- 
sented as Olive oil, both by the dealer and the label, 
although it may contain no trace whatever of the oil 
of Olives. In Europe, Olive oil is also commonly 
adulterated with sesame and peanut oils, also rape- 
seed and poppy seed oils. Our Government 
Chemists report that "small quantities of caster oil, 
lard oil, fish oil and even a petroleum oil have been 
found as adulterants in Olive oil." 

Olive oil consists almost exclusively of olein and 
palmitin, and there is but very little, if any, stearin 
in the highest grade oil. The specific gravity at 
60° F. averages .917, the range being from about 
.912 to .919. 

Analyses of ripe and green olives gave the fol- 
lowing results: 











Food-value 










Carbohy- in 




Water 


Protein 


Fat 


drates Calories 


Ripe Olives, 


64.7 


1.7 


25.9 


4.3 1205 


Green Olives 


58. 


1.1 


27.6 


11.6 1400 



The production and refining of cottonseed oil in 
the United States has grown to be an industry of 
great magnitude, and it is estimated that about 
three million barrels of 50 gallons each are pro- 



356 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

duced per annum in this country; of this amount 
it has been said that two and a half million barrels 
are used in some form or other for food purposes. 
The seed of the cotton plant is very rich in oil and 
protein. It contains traces of certain poisonous 
alkaloids, the presence of which renders its indis- 
criminate use for cattle food dangerous. Wiley 
says, however, that "In the preparation of oil, no 
trace of these poisonous substances is found, since 
they exist solely in the non-fatty tissues of the 
seed." Cottonseed oil has a high nutritive value 
and recognized authorities say that "no objection 
can be made to it from any hygienic or dietetic 
point of view." This may be true, and some per- 
sons may be quite willing to substitute cottonseed 
oil for pure Olive oil as a base for salad dressing or 
as a medicinal potion, but if so, they should get the 
economic benefit of the substitute and not pay an 
Olive oil price for the much cheaper cottonseed oil. 
There are, however, very many people who would 
much prefer to take into their system the pure oily 
juice of the fruit of the Olive tree and pay a fair 
price for it, rather than use the oil of cottonseed, 
even if it could be bought at one-fifth the cost. For 
cooking purposes cottonseed oil may be a good and, 
under certain conditions, an agreeable substitute, 
but, as a base for salad dressing the average user, 
not to mention the connoisseur, greatly prefers pure 
Olive oil to any of the doctored substitutes — Euro- 
pean and American — with which the market is 
flooded. Some people who are extensive users of 
supposedly Olive oil have developed such a de- 
praved "oil taste" that they would be greatly sur- 
prised at the flavor and action of the pure cold- 
pressed "virgin oil" juice and imagine that they 



OILS 357 

were being imposed upon by some unscrupulous 
dealer. Very possibly they have used for years a 
labelled "pure virgin Olive oil," flavored, doctored 
and adulterated which contains little, if any, Olive 
oil, and if any Olive oil is present, it is possibly only 
the oil of the lowest grade obtained from the heated 
pomace of the fruit. 

In the making of salad dressings, vinegar, which 
is a sour liquid obtained by fermentation of wine, 
cider, malt, etc., is almost universally used. In 
America we use cider vinegar; in France wine 
vinegar and in Great Britain malt vinegar are com- 
mon. Even vinegar is subjected to many kinds of 
substitutes, imitations and adulterations, and much 
distilled vinegar, made by the acetification of dilute 
alcohol, and probably colored with caramel, is on 
the market. Vinegar is not a healthful liquid put 
into the average stomach, and irritating condiments, 
such as pepper, are much better out of the body 
than in. A healthful palatable salad dressing can 
be made with pure Olive oil and lemon juice, the 
latter being an excellent substitute for vinegar. 
Olive oil has medicinal virtue as an emollient. It 
is used as a demulcent to diminish hydrochloric acid 
secretion in the stomach and to allay irritation. 
Under certain conditions it acts as a laxative, but 
modern research has proven that it does not ma- 
terially affect, if at all, the secretion of the bile, and 
it tends to prolong the emptying time of the 
stomach. 

Animal Edible Oils 

The only animal oil extensively used by man as a 
food or medicinally is a "Liver Oil" of the marine 
group, viz.: Cod Liver Oil, which has long been 



358 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

used by the fishermen of the North Sea primarily 
as a remedy in children's diseases and during the 
last 50 years has become quite generally used. 
Taken repeatedly, Cod Liver Oil increases the 
weight and strength and tends to improve the gen- 
eral physical condition. The same effects are ob- 
tained in healthy persons by the use of good food 
and fats, but Cod Liver Oil apparently can be di- 
gested by delicate persons who are unable to digest 
ordinary animal fats. Its effects are obviously 
those of an easily assimilable food ; it is not a drug, 
has no place in pharmacology and should be classed 
as a liquid food. Cod Liver Oil has always been 
supposed to have some wonderful and peculiar 
medicinal property. It contains faint traces of 
iodine, bromine and, at times, phosphorus, and these 
ingredients have been believed to have a pro- 
nounced pathological effect upon the human sys- 
tem, but we now know that they are present in far 
too small quantities to be important. Cholesterin 
has been suggested as the curative agent, but it is 
present in smaller quantities in Cod Liver Oil than 
in many other foods. Bastedo says, "The value of 
Cod Liver Oil in sickness seems to be entirely de- 
pendent upon its digestibility as a fat. It is noth- 
ing but a readily digestible fat food, and has no 
special medicinal virtues." Cushny, referring to 
the relative digestibility of Cod Liver Oil and 
ordinary fats, says, "It is generally believed to 
differ from ordinary fats in being more readily as- 
similable, but the explanations of this fact are by 
no means agreed upon, for though it is often said to 
be more rapidly absorbed from the intestines, there 
is little reliable evidence that such is the case. The 
chief argument brought forward in its support is 



OILS 359 

that Cod Liver Oil forms an emulsion in the test 
tube more rapidly than other oils. It is undoubtedly 
well borne by the stomach, but it has not been often 
compared with other oils in regard to this point, 
and it is still impossible to state that other oils 
administered with the same care as Cod Liver Oil 
are not equally successful remedies." On the whole, 
Cod Liver Oil has not been shown to have any 
action apart from that of an easily digested liquid 
"fat" food and its superiority to some other fats and 
oils has not been satisfactorily established, never- 
theless, the number of chemical compounds occur- 
ring in Cod Liver Oil is much greater than that 
which occurs in ordinary oils. 

Cod Liver Oil has a specific gravity of .922, a 
bland fishy taste and a fishy odor. The oil is 
nauseating to many people, hence it is customary 
to administer it with the extract of malt or in 
the form of a sweetened and flavored emulsion. 
Experiments indicate that emulsified oils are more 
readily absorbable than the unemulsified, especially 
by persons of poor nutrition, and it has been noted 
clinically that the emulsion is easier to take and is 
better borne by the stomach than the pure oil. 

Cod Liver Oil is used in chronic wasting diseases, 
such as tuberculosis, scrofula, rickets, etc., but seems 
only to have the virtue of an easily digested high 
fuel-value food. In all forms of malnutrition and 
delicacy in children, it is largely used and un- 
doubtedly tends to increase weight, but care must 
be taken that it does not disturb the digestion, as 
it is a rich, concentrated, fatty food and can only be 
used within clearly defined limits. 

Cod Liver Oil has been subjected to many forms 
of adulteration, the most extensive consisting of the 



360 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

admixture of fish liver oils of lower quality or the 
use of blubber oil. Seal and whale oils, Japan Fish 
oil and practically all other fish oils which are of a 
character that will not materially disguise the prop- 
erties of Cod Liver Oil, have been used. The fish 
oils of commerce and industry are the sardine, 
salmon, menhaden and herring, generally used for 
currying leather. Liver oils, such as Cod Liver and 
Shark Liver, are used for the same purpose. Blub- 
ber oils from the seal and the whale are used for 
fuel and currying leather, and the latter is used for 
soap making and fibre dressing. The oils from the 
Dolphin and Porpoise are used for lubricating deli- 
cate machinery. Of the terrestrial animal oils, such 
as sheep's foot, horse's foot, and neat's food, all are 
used for lubricating or leather dressing; therefore, 
of the entire range of fish and animal oils, Cod 
Liver Oil is the only one that experience has 
branded as edible, and this can be used only 
sparingly as a food as one would other vegetable 
and animal fats. 

Medicinal Mineral Oils 

These mineral oils which have been used quite 
extensively during the past few years, although 
liquid, cannot be considered as a beverage and, 
moreover, they possess no food value. These oils 
are really liquid paraffin or petroleum oil, but are 
also known as liquid vaseline, liquid albolene, liquid 
petrolatum and Russian mineral oil, the latter being 
quite popular because of the wonderful medicinal 
virtue attributed to it. Lane first suggested such 
oils to be taken internally for chronic intestinal 
stasis with auto-intoxication. They are not ab- 



OILS 361 

sorbed from the alimentary tract and are, there- 
fore, but intestinal lubricants tending to soften and 
increase the bulk of the feces and facilitate their 
passage through the intestines and colon to the 
rectum. Such oils, taken in moderation, have but 
little effect upon the stomach, but like all other oils, 
they tend to retard stomach emptying and gastric 
digestion. Mineral oils act mechanically and not 
chemically, and do not excite any pronounced laxa- 
tive action. Whereas, superior to cathartic drugs, 
the continued internal use of such unnatural fluids 
is not to be recommended. Water enemas, or pre- 
ferably internal baths, using sterilized water, are 
less harmful to the system than non-assimilable 
mineral oils; these oils enter the stomach and 
traverse the entire digestive tract as a foreign un- 
desirable body which the system is naturally de- 
sirous of eliminating. Proper food, selected and 
eaten with intelligence, will obviate the necessity of 
any mechanical or chemical means to facilitate the 
natural bodily functions, and the popular and per- 
sistent use of mineral oils, whereas, not as harmful 
as the use of drugs and poisons, is nevertheless a 
fad of certain branches of the medical profession, 
and is advocated to lessen the evils of faulty living. 
It would be far better to devote one's energies to 
the elimination of the "cause," instead of loading 
one's system with undesirable foreign matter, in an 
attempt to modify "effects." Sane eating and 
drinking, both as regards quantity, quality and time 
periods, sane living with mental and physical 
harmony established with nature and one's environ- 
ment, will make the use of mineral oils unnecessary 
and undesirable. 



362 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

COMPOSITION AND FOOD VALUE OF CONDIMENTS 





-M 


1-4 CO 

.5 w 


co 


>£» CO 


co 




. a 


."" 


-C <U 


.£! 


s 

CD 


5§ 


v "3 

S3 


J3 o 


11 


oS o 


J> 4) 


P^O 


03 IS 

feO 


oo 


O 'eS 
HO 



Ft 

<v 
co a 

3 1 *> 

O' ^bL^&kO fcO oo ho oS 

Olive Oil ltbsp. 13 120.9 .... 121 930 

Mayonnaise dressing ltbsp. 21 .04 1.1 185.3 .2 187 890 
Ingredients: 
2 eggs 
2 c. olive oil 
1 tsp. vinegar, or 
1 tsp. lemon juice 
.'Salt, pepper, mustard 

Hollandaise sauce 2 tbsp. 40 .48 7.6 161.5 1.3 170 425 

Ingredients : 
y s c. butter 
Yolks 2 eggs 
1 tsp. lemon juice 
Salt, cayenne pepper 

French dressing 

Ingredients: 1 dsp. 11 .36 ... 74.4 .... 74 673 

4 tsp. olive oil 
1 tsp. vinegar 
14 tsp. salt 
Pepper 

Catsup— tomato ltbsp. 20 .82 1.2 .4 10.1 12 58 



V. 



FRUIT JUICES 

FHUITS were doubtless among the earliest 
foods of man and the name has been derived 
from the Latin "fructor" meaning "to en- 
joy." The designation is generally applied to such 
seed envelopes of plants as are edible and juicy. 
Fruits may be divided into the orchard class, grow- 
ing on trees, the berry class, growing on shrubs and 
bushes, and the vine class growing on creepers, 
whereas another classification could be made be- 
tween the wild and the cultivated. The general 
characteristics of fruits are determined . by their 
color, flavor, size, odor, relative solidity, water and 
juice content and nutritive properties. They are 
composed very largely of water and the solid matter 
consists of the usual cellulose of vegetable bodies, 
sugars, gums, organic acids and mineral matter. 
Fruits are all succulent and when subjected to 
pressure, yield a refreshing juice which contains the 
principal portion of their dietetic constituents, viz. : 
sugars and acids. Nature has so arranged that in 
the hottest regions of earth the most juicy fruits 
are to be found, the thirst-quenching properties of 
fruit being due not only to their large water con- 
tent, but also to the organic acids and salts con- 
tained therein. The fine aroma of fruit is caused 
by ethereal oils which are principally contained in 
the cells of the skins. 

Wiley has prepared the following table to ex- 



364 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

press the average content of sugar and acids in the 
common fruits : 





Sugar 


Acid 


Fruit 


per cent. 


per cent. 


Apples, Rhode Island 


10.95 


0.70 


Winesap 


11.95 


0.50 


Northern Spy 


11.80 


0.70 


Apricots 


11.01 


1.15 


Bananas 


20.28 


0.30 


Blackberries 


5.78 


0.77 


C ranberries 


1.52 


2.34 


Grapes 


7.9 to 26.4 0.59 


Lemons 


0.37 


5.39 


Oranges 


5.65 


1.35 


Peaches 


7.88 


0.56 


Pears 


9.11 


0.19 


Pineapples 


11.50 


0.60 


Plums 


14.71 


0.77 


Prunes 


16.11 


0.32 


Raspberries 


5.33 


1.48 


Strawberries 


6.24 


1.10 



In addition to the sugar content here given, other 
carbohydrates are present in small quantities. 

In the above table the acidity is determined as 
malic acid in apples, blackberries and strawberries,, 
in which the predominating acid is malic. In cran- 
berries one of the acids is benzoic, amounting some- 
times to as much as 0.05 per cent.; in grapes it is 
tartaric, and in lemons and oranges citric. In the 
other fruits, where the character of the organic acid 
is not distinctly of one kind, the total organic acid 
has been estimated as sulphuric acid, not meaning, 
of course, that the acids are present in that form, 
but merely that their quantity was measured in 
terms of sulphuric acid. 



FRUIT JUICES 



365 



In order to obtain fruit with a high content of 
sugar and only very little acid, it must be left on the 
tree until absolutely ripe. The later it is gathered, 
moreover, the stronger will be the perfume. Bald- 
win apples, for instance, when green showed 8.03 
per cent, of sugar and when very ripe 14.07 per 
cent. 

The following table gives the water content, com- 
position and food or fuel value of various fruits : 

COMPOSITION AND NOURISHMENT OF FRUITS 

















Food 










Carbo- 




Value 




Water 


Protein 


Fat 


hydrates 


Ash 


Calories 


Fresh Fruit, 


per 


per 


per 


per 


per 


per 


Berries, Etc. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


pound 


Apples — Edible 


84.6 


.4 


.5 


14.2 


.3 


290 


Apricots 


85.0 


1.1 




. 


13.4 


.5 


270 


Bananas — Edible 


75.3 


1.3 




6 


22.0 


.8 


460 


Blackberries 


86.3 


1.3 


1 





10.9 


.5 


270 


Cherries 


76.8 


.9 




8 


15.9 


.6 


345 


Cranberries 


88.9 


.4 




6 


9.9 


.2 


215 


Fresh Figs 


79.1 


1.5 


. . . 




18.8 


.6 


380 


Grapes 


58.0 


1.0 


1 


2 


14.4 


.4 


335- 


Huckleberries 


81.9 


.6 




6 


16.6 


.3 


345 


Lemons — Edible 


89.3 


1.0 




7 


8.5 


.5 


205 


Muskmelons — Edible 89.5 


.6 




. 


9.3 


.6 


185 


Nectarines 


82.9 


.6 






15.9 


.6 


305 


Oranges — Edible 


86.9 


.8 




2 


11.6 


.5 


240 


Peaches — Edible 


89.4 


.7 




.1 


9.4 


.4 


190 


Pears — Edible 


84.4 


.6 




5 


14.1 


.4 


295 


Pineapple 


89.3 


.4 




3 


9.7 


.3 


200 


Plums — Edible 


78.4 


1.0 






20.1 


.5 


395 


Pomegranates 


76.8 


1.5 


1 


6 


19.5 


.6 


460 


Fresh Prunes 


79.6 


.9 






18.9 


.6 


370 


Red Raspberries 


85.8 


1.0 






12.6 


.6 


255 


Raspberry Juice 


49.3 


.5 






49.9 


.3 


935 


Strawberries 


90.4 


1.0 




.6 


7.4 


.6 


180 


Watermelons 














—Edible 


92.4 


.4 




.2 


6.7 


.3 


140 



There are people who do not care to drink water, 
they do not like it and will not take it unless it is 
flavored, sweetened or otherwise treated and made 
more palatable and appealing to them. This is a 
most unfortunate and serious condition, and such 
people pamper their pernicious and unnatural sense 



366 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



of taste by the use of drugged drinks, sickly, syrupy 
concoctions or poisoned decoctions, brews and in- 
fusions. Health is not considered, and well-being 
is sacrificed at the altar of a perverted luxurious 
appetite, the product of an artificial existence. 
Fortunately, fruit juices with or without the ad- 
dition of water, appeal to many of this class, for 
fruit juices are palatable, refreshing and thirst- 
quenching drinks and, moreover, when properly 
selected and used, are most healthful and invigorat- 
ing. They also have the advantage, even when 
taken in large quantities, of seldom becoming in- 
jurious to any serious extent, and this cannot be 
said of any other popular drinks with the exception 
of nature's own beverage — water. Fruit juices have 
a certain curative action in the body because of the 
organic acid and nutritive salts contained therein, 
and they quench the thirst more satisfactorily than 
almost any other liquid. 

Koenig has prepared the following table to show 
the analysis of certain fruit juices: 



CONTENT IN 100 c. c. OF JUICE 



Fruit 
Juices 


Sugar 
Gr. 


Tannins 

precipitated by 

Acids Alkalines Ash 

Gr. Gr. Gr. 


Potash 
Gr. 


Phos- 
phoric 
Acid 
Gr. 


Apple 


12.54 


0.321 


0.115 


0.44 


0.209 


0.019 


Cherry- 


12.81 


0.753 


0.088 


0.45 


0.097 


0.021 


Strawberry 


5.33 


1.040 


Pectin 
0.560 


0.64 


0.097 


0.026 


Raspberry 


5.33 


1.846 


Pectin 
0.960 


0.50 


0.086 


0.032 


Huckleberry 


6.27 


1.130 


.... 


0.29 


.... 


.... 


Gooseberry 


6.12 


1.650 


0.061 


0.27 


.... 


.... 


Peach 


3.85 


0.684 


Pectin 
0.760 


0.47 


0.076 


0.046 



FRUIT JUICES 367 

Effect of Fruit Juices on the System 

/Dr. Lorand says that in fevers, fruit juices are 
very beneficial, as the nourishment to be obtained 
from some of them may be in the only form that 
can be tolerated. Fruit juices "have a thinning 
effect upon the blood, thus diminishing its viscidity 
and are consequently an excellent drink for arteri- 
osclerotics." They also have stimulating action 
upon the bowels ; the uric acid eliminating and alka- 
linizing properties of certain fruit juices are great 
and their use is beneficial in gout. Lorand advo- 
cates the use of huckleberry juice for chronic in- 
testinal catarrh with diarrhoea. Fruit juices favor- 
ably affect diureses; some juices, such as apples and 
bilberries, are not well tolerated by persons suffer- 
ing with hyperacidity of the stomach ; for diabetes, 
fruit juices low in sugar are recommended. The 
juice of apples may be used by the average person 
as an agreeable sort of "apple tea." According to 
Monteuis, this is made by cutting a large apple 
with the skin into about eight pieces, and pouring 
over it a pint of hot water ; it is then left on the edge 
of the fire for about two hours. Two or three slices 
of orange or lemon are added with 5 or 6 pieces of 
domino sugar. It is to be served hot, thus giving 
besides the beneficial juice, the full aroma of the 
apple. 

There is probably no country in the world where 
so many different kinds of fruit can be grown with 
success and advantage to the native as in the United 
States. Ours is a country of all climates and all 
degrees of altitude and humidity. Apples par- 
ticularly thrive in the Northern portion, and juicy 
fruits of the citrus family in the South lands. The 
orange, lemon, lime and grape-fruit (shaddock") 



368 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

are all cultivated forms of the genus citrus. Ap- 
ples, a comparatively solid fruit, yield liberal 
quantities of juice in the press, which can be used 
fresh or be made into apple wine, cider or vinegar. 
The juice from any of the fruits of the citrus family 
is readily separated from the pulp. Oranges are 
the sweetest and most palatable fruit of this class; 
at times they contain as high as 10 per cent, of 
sugar. Lemons are more acid, the analyses of 22 
different samples of California lemons snowing an 
average of 2.33 per cent, of sugar and 5.26 per cent, 
of acid — principally citric acid — about four times 
as much acid as the average orange. Limes are 
more acid than lemons and their juice is sold 
throughout the world for beverage and medicinal 
purposes. The lime may be popularly regarded as 
a very sour small lemon. Wiley says, "Unfortu- 
nately lime juice is offered on the market often in 
entirely spurious forms, that is, a mixture made up 
with flavoring of an acid character resembling that 
of the natural juice. It is also frequently adul- 
terated by the addition of preservatives. Among 
these, sulphurous and salicylic acids are perhaps 
the most frequent. Lime juice can be perfectly 
preserved by sterilization and there is no necessity 
for the use of preservatives therein." Lemon or 
lime juice is used on shipboard to prevent scurvy, 
which is a disease characterized by livid spots (due 
to extravasation of blood) , spongy gums and bleed- 
ing from almost all the mucous membranes. It is 
occasioned by confinement and innutritious food, 
but particularly by a lack of fresh vegetable food. 
The British Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 re- 
quires every British ship going to other countries, 
where lemon or lime juice cannot be obtained, to 



FRUIT JUICES 369 

take a sufficient quantity of such fruit juices with 
them to give one ounce to every member of the crew 
per day. Hence British sailors are popularly called 
"Lime juicers.' ' Grape fruit contains about 87 per 
cent, of water, 9.5 per cent, sugar and 2.7 per cent, 
acids (as citric). It possesses properties which can 
be considered as a cross between the lemon and the 
orange, being more acid than the orange and 
sweeter than the lemon. It has been said that 
nature made fruits "full of taste" so as to seduce 
our palates. They contain little nourishment and 
cannot be considered as a prime food, except by 
those leading an indolent life in the tropics. The 
value of fruits lies chiefly in their juices, and while 
some possess digestive properties, all act as de- 
purating agents. Dr. Moras has said that "All 
people, young or old, fat or thin, bilious or gouty, 
anemic or plethoric can take the juices of apples 
and oranges with benefit. Thin or anemic indi- 
viduals should, as a rule, avoid lemon juice and 
favor grape juice, whereas gouty, fat or full- 
blooded persons should favor lemon and lime juices. 
The most generally useful and wholesome fruit 
juice is that of the orange.' ' [Moras also recom- 
mends the juices of apples, lemons, limes and 
grapes, the latter two of which are quite generally 
extracted and preserved and can be procured "in 
nearly their natural state, so that they retain much 
of their remedial or beneficial properties." Fruits 
or fruit juices should not be taken with other foods. 
They are better before a meal than as dessert, but 
they are much more beneficial if served between 
meals or taken a full hour before meals. A glass of 
an excellent bracer and is almost always beneficial 
orange juice on arising in the morning is generally 



870 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

to the system if taken when the stomach is empty* 
Some people need the "woody" fibers of vegetables 
and fruit to give their digestive tract a reasonable 
"mass" to operate with, but the average person is 
benefited far greater with suitable fruit juices 
taken as a liquid to supply the water demands of 
the body and, in addition, act to tone up the system, 
give some nourishment, invigorate and add strength 
to the cleansing power of water. Pineapple juice 
taken properly improves the tone of the digestive 
system. Moras advises the use of pineapple juice 
and says, "Irrational as it may seem, take it only 
between meals, because every 'lift' that you give 
your stomach- juice in the way of 'extra' digestive 
ferments, the more it learns to expect and to depend 
on that 'lift' — as your bowels do from taking laxa- 
tives or cathartics or injections. Take pineapples 
between meals, or make a whole lunch on them." 
Such fruits as bananas are food, and nourishing 
rather than fruity, juicy and thirst- quenching. 
Such fruits should be eaten as one would bread or 
other starchy food for they are, in fact, when im- 
perfectly ripened chiefly composed of starch. 
Melons should be treated like juicy fruit and eaten 
as a first course or between meals with no other 
food and never at the end of a meal. 

Fruit Juices Adaptable to Tropical Consumption 

Eugene Christian says that the over-consumption 
of very acid fruits is one of the fundamental errors 
of nutrition in the Northern countries. "In the 
tropics, where the pores of the skin are constantly 
kept open by superficial heat, the body can elimi- 
nate and volatilize a great quantity of poison. In 
the tropics, acids are necessary as germicidal fluids, 



FRUIT JUICES 371 

but in Northern countries such articles as grape 
fruit, lemons, limes, pineapples, apricots and all 
highly acidulous fruits should be avoided save, per- 
haps, in exceedingly warm weather. Taken at 
other times, the tendency is to increase the total 
acid content of the stomach and to ferment other 
foods. Citrus fruits often become one of the sec- 
ondary causes of superacidity and fermentation, 
especially when eaten with meals, the citrus acid 
partaking of the chemistry of hydrochloric acid. 
When citrus fruits are taken between meals the 
residue of acid left in the stomach frequently sours 
and ferments the next meal." Citrus fruits have 
been planted by nature in Southern and semi-tropi- 
cal countries ; in such lands they serve as a valuable 
source of food to peoples thinly clad and exposed 
to the sun's rays leading a more or less inactive, 
sluggish life. As a general rule, nature supplies 
the proper food in each geographical setting for the 
sustenance of animal life therein and, therefore, 
citrus fruits in the South lands seem proper, and 
temperance or abstinence in regard to the use of 
such fruits for people in the North lands would 
seem to be the part of wisdom, except under atmos- 
pherical and thermal conditions resembling those 
of semi-tropical lands. Christian's statements are 
somewhat extreme, however, for the juice of the 
sweeter citrus fruits taken in moderation generally 
prove exceptionally beneficial not only to Northern 
adults, but the juice of the sweet orange diluted 
has been demonstrated to be very healthful for very 
young children. The more acid lemons and limes 
can be used medicinally to great advantage; lemon 
juice is a healthful and pleasing substitute for 
vinegar, and sliced lemon can be used to good ad- 
vantage in lieu of milk, in tea — hot or cold. 



872 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Fruit Juice Adulteration 

Fruit syrups are not fruit juices and most treated 
fruits are artifically changed into "sweets" or "con- 
fections." The valuable constituents of fruits are 
the natural juices and any process that seeks to 
change the natural juice, add sugar or affect the 
original characteristics and acid properties, should 
be looked upon with pronounced disfavor. The 
juices of fruits mixed with sugar are articles of com- 
merce known as fruit syrups. If honestly made 
sterilized or properly pasteurized and correctly 
handled, they are of use for flavoring drinks such 
as are served at "Soda Fountains," but they are 
fruit juices no more. Fruit syrups are extensively 
and unnecessarily adulterated. The principal 
adulteration is the omission of the pasteurization 
process and the substitution of Benzoic or Salicylic 
acid or their compounds, which are injurious to 
health and have a deleterious effect upon the sys- 
tem. Imitation fruit syrups by synthetic products 
are very generally used to-day. Wiley says, "The 
flavors which give to fruits their character and 
aroma are chemical compounds produced by nature 
and are chiefly of the nature of a volatile oil or 
compound ether. Of these flavors, the compound 
ethers especially are readily produced by purely 
synthetic processes. It is possible, therefore, for 
the chemist to make an approximate imitation of 
the natural fruit flavor." Wiley also says with em- 
phasis that imitation fruit syrups should never be 
used except the consumer is notified of the chance 
he is taking with an artificially prepared article and 
they should never be used under any circumstances 
when they contain an ingredient known to be pre- 
judicial to health. Dr. Wiley in this case is too con- 



FRUIT JUICES 373 

servative, for all fake fruit juices should be out- 
lawed and legislation passed requiring honest and 
'pure food" substances, for all artificial substitutes 
lack the properties of nature's creations and all 
offer a most extensive and profitable field for the 
unscrupulous and avaricious manufacturer to per- 
form in, to the detriment of an innocent consum- 
ing public. The comprehensive use of fruit juice 
substitutes and adulterants in the United States is 
an outrage perpetrated on a long suffering public, 
not only by manufacturers and drug store "fakers" 
but by grasping and so-called efficient trained serv- 
ants of our hotels, steamships, trains and institu- 
tions. If a traveller or guest in any establishment 
other than the home, desires pure, fresh, unadul- 
terated orange or lemon juice, the only sure way of 
obtaining it is to order the fruit and squeeze the 
juice out himself. Drug stores are generally even 
worse, if such be possible, and in many, the only 
oranges or lemons at the soda fountain are for ex- 
hibit, and the orangeade and lemonade are positive 
strangers to the real fruit. Fruit juices without 
added sugar, are healthful and beneficial; fruit 
syrups are deleterious to any constitution and will 
upset digestion; if synthetically concocted with 
chemicals and made rich in sugar substitutes such 
as saccharin, they take a prominent place in the 
van of the list of beverages injurious to health and 
they should be placarded to clearly show an ignor- 
ant, indifferent or thoughtless public exactly what 
they are. 



VI. 



SOUPS AND EXTRACTS 

SOUP is a liquid food, usually made by boiling 
meat or vegetables, or both, in water — sea- 
soned or flavored. Soups are used at the be- 
ginning of a meal, at mid-day or evening, and as a 
rule they do not have much nutritive value. A cup 
of hot soup served as the first course of a dinner 
has been called by enthusiasts a "non-alcoholic cock- 
tail." Under certain conditions a well made soup 
may perform some useful function, since the intro- 
duction of a slightly nutritive hot liquid with con- 
dimental properties into the stomach at the begin- 
ning of the meal, may tend to stimulate and spur 
onward the secretive glands of the stomach walls to 
greater activity and thus promote digestion. 
"Soup," it has been well said, however, "should be 
regarded pre-eminently as a condiment and not as 
a nutritive substance." The following table of the 
water content, composition and food value of 
various kinds of soup may be of interest : 

COMPOSITION AND NOURISHMENT OF SOUPS 









i 


Carbo-hy 




* M g 




Water 


Protein 


Fat 


drates 


Ash 


> 't& 


Soups 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


a 3 u 




Cent. 


Cent. 


Cent. 


Cent. 


Cent. 


s ce <l> 


(A) Home Made 














Beef 


92.9 


4.4 


.4 


1.1 


1.2 


120 


Bean 


84.3 


3.2 


1.4 


9.4 


1.7 


295 


Chicken 


84.3 


10.5 


.8 


2.4 


2.0 


275 


Clam Chowder 


88.7 


1.8 


.8 


6.7 


2.0 


195 



SOUPS AND EXTRACTS 375 



(B) Canned, as purchased 












Cream of Asparagus 


87.4 


2.5 


3.2 


5.5 


1.4 


285 


Bouillon 


96.6 


2.2 


.1 


.2 


.9 


50 


Cream of Celery 


88.6 


2.1 


2.8 


5.0 


1.5 


250 


Chicken Gumbo 


89.2 


3.8 


.9 


4.7 


1.4 


195 


Chicken 


93.8 


3.6 


.1 


1.5 


1.0 


100 


Consomme 


96.0 


2.5 


. . 


.4 


1.1 


55 


Cream of Corn 


86.8 


2.5 


1.9 


7.8 


1.0 


270 


Julienne 


95.9 


2.7 


. . 


.5 


.9 


60 


Mock Turtle 


89.8 


5.2 


.9 


2.8 


1.3 


185 


Mulligatawny 


89.3 


3.7 


.1 


5.7 


1.2 


180 


Oxtail 


88.8 


4.0 


1.3 


4.3 


1.6 


210 


Pea 


86.9 


3.6 


.7 


7.6 


1.2 


235 


Cream of Green Pea 


87.7 


2.6 


2.7 


5.7 


1.3 


270 


Tomato 


90.0 


1.8 


1.1 


5.6 


1.5 


185 


Green Turtle 


86.6 


6.1 


1.9 


3.9 


1.5 


265 


Vegetable 


95.7 


2.9 




.5 


.9 


65 



In the making of soup stock, the base of the ma- 
terial as a rule is that part of the meat and bone 
that is soluble in hot water and such soup stock 
usually contains over 95 per cent, of water and less 
than 5 per cent, of nutritive matter. Many of the 
clear soups contain very much less nutrient — some- 
times as low as one per cent. The number of soups 
that can be made from soup stock is practically un- 
limited. Wiley analyzed a pea soup and a potato 
soup and obtained the followed results : 

Pea Soup Potato Soup 





Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Water, 


88.26 


90.96 


Protein 


3.38 


1.37 


Fat, 


0.95 


1.53 


Ash, 


1.13 


.99 


Starch and other Carbohydrates, 


6.30 


5.18 



376 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Beef extract is only a soup, or a soup stock espe- 
cially prepared from beef. It is said that it requires 
about 34 pounds of meat to yield one pound of con- 
centrated extract and the extract can be diluted for 
consumption so as to make from 6 to 7 gallons of 
what is termed Beef Tea. "The composition of the 
ordinary beef extract of commerce shows that it 
contains from 15 to 20 per cent, of moisture, from 
17 to 23 per cent, of ash and from 50 to 60 per cent, 
of meat bases, i. e., the soluble nitrogenous contents 
of meat." A comparison of the dry substances com- 
pared with the dry substances of meat is given by 
Wiley as follows : 









Ash and 




Protein 


Meat Bases 


Mineral Matter 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Extract, 


49.7 


25.6 


24.7 


Meat, 


86.7 


7.8 


5.3 



The extract is therefore essentially different in 
its composition from dry meat and has added to it a 
large quantity of meat fibre or the meat rendered 
soluble by some kind of treatment. It contains 
only a relatively small part of the nutritive matter 
of the meat and its chief value lies in the ease and 
speed with which it can be handled and become ab- 
sorbed into the circulation ; it is, therefore, of value 
for invalids, but in the popular mind the nutritious 
properties of meat extracts are grossly ex- 
aggerated. It has been fittingly said, "They may 
be useful as stimulants or as condimental sub- 
stances, or as a means of speedily introducing a 
soluble nutrient in the case of disease, where it is 
extremely important that even small amounts of 
nutritious material should enter the body." Beef 
juice refers solely to the liquid naturally remaining 



SOUPS AND EXTRACTS 377 

in the fresh meat after its proper preparation for 
consumption, i. e., after the withdrawal of the blood 
and the proper cooling and storing of the flesh. 

Wiley gives the following comparison between 
the composition of beef juice pressed from different 
parts of meat which had been previously heated ex- 
ternally, and beef extract : 







Beef Juice 


Beef Extract 


Water, 




90.65 


21.66 


Ash, 




1.36 


20.46 


Salt, 




.15 


5.47 


Phosphoric Acid, 


.36 


4.55 


Fat, 




.19 


.50 


Acid (as 


Lactic) 


.15 


8.42 


Nitrogen 


(total) 


1.15 


7.66 



Attempts have been made to put soluble meats 
en the market especially for invalids and people 
suffering with disordered digestion. Robert Hutch- 
inson gives the composition of such a preparation 
as follows : 



Water, 




67.21 


per cent. 


Fat, 




5.93 


tt it 


Albumen, 




11.00 


a n 


Peptone, 




6.51 


n a 


Meat Extract, 


7.55 


tt tt 


Ash and 


Salt, 


1.74 


tt n 



Beef tea is in all essential particulars nothing 
more than a rich unfiltered soup stock and it has 
approximately the following composition: 

Water, 88.00 per cent. 

Meat Bases, 8.50 

Protein — Soluble and flocculated, 8.00 " 
Ash and Salt, 1.50 " " 



378 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Dr. Moras says, "Soups, broths and beef teas as 
almost universally made, are infusions of the refuse 
which the animal's blood and tissues happened to 
retain at the time of its death, but people deceive 
themselves (by flavoring or seasoning the water or 
fluid in which said refuse is dissolved) into believing 
that they are imbibing the substance and essence of 
the 'nutritives' instead of the substance and essence 
of the 'excrementitions.' ' He adds that fresh 
vegetable soups eaten with the vegetables have 
some merit, but beef teas, extracts and bouillon are 
only good "for bacterial cultures — feeding and 
raising microbes." Whereas Moras is somewhat 
extreme, the prime thought is correct. Soup is 
water with some but very little nourishment, de- 
rived from meats or vegetables, or both. The sea- 
soning is stimulating, and it may prove irritating 
to a sensitive stomach and as a regular item of diet, 
harmful to the average stomach. The ingredient 
in soup that is not only harmless but generally bene- 
ficial, is the hot water, and if the gastric juice needs 
stimulating encouragement, probably the hot water 
in the soup will accomplish the results desired. 
The use of irritating condiments, relishes, seasoning 
and spices is most undesirable. The food value of 
soup is negligible, but under certain conditions the 
hot water may have virtue, stimulate the flow and 
dilute the gastric juices, possibly tend to prevent 
hyperacidity and fermentation, aid digestion by re- 
moving causes of irritation and function with other 
water, taken as liquid throughout the meal or in the 
food, to promote the purity and circulation of the 
blood. For many years it was held that no water 
should be taken with meals. The food for the 
human body should carry from 65 to 80 per cent. 



SOUPS AND EXTRACTS 379 

of moisture and this necessitates some water drink- 
ing during meals — not while eating, i. e., while food 
is in the mouth, but nevertheless during meals. In 
the majority of cases the gastric juice of the 
stomach is too strong, and water in the proper 
amount taken before and after portions of food, is 
beneficial in maintaining the proper strength of the 
digestive fluid, as well as in maintaining the needed 
aqueous equilibrium of the body. 



VII 



ALCOHOL 

ALCOHOL is not, as is generally supposed, 
a true stimulant, but has a pronounced 
narcotic, sedative or deadening effect and 
must, therefore, be classed as a narcotic and heart- 
depressant, increasing the rate but not the force of 
the pulse. Alcohol causes depression of the nerve 
centers controlling the blood vessels and large doses 
cause paralysis of these nerves and of the heart. 
A narcotic is usually classified as a drug which 
allays morbid susceptibility, relieves pain and tends 
to produce sleep but which in poisonous doses 
causes coma, convulsions and ultimately death. 
Although alcohol has, at first, an apparent stimulat- 
ing effect, it cannot be a stimulant, for it does not 
produce an increase of vital energy and vigorous 
strength. It excites, inhibits and irritates rather 
than stimulates, and like a true irritant, the ultimate 
effect of its use in quantity is depression or even 
paralysis. The term narcotic is derived from words 
meaning "to benumb" or "to produce a state of 
torpor." Narcotics depress the central nervous 
system. They can be divided into four classes : 

General anesthetics, such as ether or chloroform, 
Intoxicants, such as alcohol, 
Hypnotics, such as opium and bromides, 
Antihysteric or aromatic carminative drugs, used to lessen 
a state of nervous instability. 



ALCOHOL 381 

It is extremely difficult to draw a hard and fast 
line between stimulants and narcotics, or between 
stimulants, depressants, irritants and paralyzing 
agents. In many cases the action and effect of a 
drug vary with the quantity used and the time 
factor. We know, however, that alcohol is a prime 
intoxicant, that it seems when first taken to act as 
a stimulant, but it quickly gives the reaction of a 
narcotic ; it is a powerful irritant and at a later stage 
may act as an hypnotic ; it is a powerful poison, and 
"drunkenness' ' is but a cumulative production of 
paralysis of various parts of the nervous system. An 
English authority has said that "tea sots" are well 
known to be affected with palpitation and irregu- 
larity of the heart as well as with more or less 
sleeplessness, mental irritability and muscular 
tremors, which in some culminate in paralysis, while 
positive intoxication has been known to be the re- 
sult of the excessive use of strong tea. "In short, 
from tea to haschisch, we have, through hops, 
alcohol, tobacco and opium, a sort of graduated scale 
of intoxicants which excite in small doses and 
narcotize in larger, the narcotic dose having no 
stimulating properties whatever, and only appear- 
ing to possess them from the fact that the agent 
can be but gradually taken up by the blood, and the 
system thus comes primarily under the influence of 
a 'stimulant' dose. In certain circumstances, and 
with certain agents — as in the production of chloro- 
form narcosis — this precursory stage is capable of 
being much abbreviated, if not altogether anni- 
hilated; while with other agents — as tea — the nar- 
cotic stage is by no means as readily produced.' ' 
Fisher and Fisk in their admirable book "How to 
Live," referring to the effect of alcohol, say that, 



382 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

"It is now conceded that alcohol is not a real brain 
stimulant but acts by narrowing the field of con- 
sciousness. By gradually overcoming the higher 
brain elements, the activities of the lower ones are 
released, hence the so-called stimulation, and the 
lack of judgment and common sense often shown 
by those even slightly under the influence of alcohol. 
The man who wakes up under alcohol is really 
going to sleep, as far as his judgment and reason 
are concerned." 

Alcohol gives a false impression of its action. It 
does not give great strength but it gives a tempo- 
rary feeling of unusual strength through paralysis 
of the sense of fatigue. Sir W. Broadbent has said : 
"A falsehood which dies hard is the idea that stimu- 
lants of whatever kind actually give strength and 
are necessary for the maintenance of health and 
vigor. Such is not the case, and the well-worn 
comparison that they are the whip and spur and not 
the corn and grass is strictly accurate. Anything 
accomplished under the influence of stimulants is 
done at the expense of blood and tissue, and if fre- 
quently repeated, at the expense of the constitu- 
tion." A stimulated belief permits one who has 
taken a moderate dose of alcohol to do great 
muscular work for a few seconds, but the strength 
is assumed; it is false, not real, and endurance be- 
comes woefully weak. Those who employ it in 
excess are in danger of acquiring an alcoholic 
thirst or habit toward which the body possesses no 
effective counter-acting regulation or feeling of 
satiety. Alcohol is a fuel, and unlike caffeine and 
similar drugs, it may be termed a "food" ; although 
under certain conditions it may function as a true 
food, it has aptly been said that it should be avoided 



ALCOHOL :383 

as a food unless administered pathologically. "It 
is good to burn in a stove but not in the human 
body." 

Bowers has said that "Alcohol is a poison which 
can be considered a food, provided one carefully 
avoids using it," and Atwater in an address de- 
livered in Paris said, "Alcohol is a food, within 
very restricted limits; likewise arsenic, belladonna 
and other poisons contain nutritive elements, and 
can, equally with alcohol, be called foods." Dr. 
Fisher, Director of the New York Hygiene and 
Life Extension Institute, commenting upon food 
values said, "What about alcohol? This lecture is 
about foods, not about narcotics; so we will place 
alcohol where it belongs — on the drug shelf. You 
can get the equivalent of its vaunted energy and 
so-called food value without any of its poison value 
out of a little sugar and water." 

Alcohol is of great medicinal value as a solvent. 
In strength of about ten per cent, and upwards it is 
an antiseptic. Applied externally it is of value be- 
cause of its rapid evaporation, refrigerant and an- 
hydrotic action, and mixed with other substances its 
field of usefulness, for external medicinal applica- 
tion, is very great. Taken internally in small doses 
and in sufficient dilution, alcohol stimulates the 
mucous membranes, causes dilation of the gastric 
blood vessels, increased secretion of the gastric 
juices and greater activity in the movements of the 
muscular layers in the walls of the stomach. It also 
tends to lessen the sensibility of the stomach and so 
may relieve gastric pain. In a strong solution, or 
when taken as whiskey, rum or gin straight, alcohol 
precipitates the pepsin as well as some of the pep- 
tones and proteids and thereby depresses or arrests 



384 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

gastric digestion. The total effect of a small dose 
of alcohol may, however, in the aggregate favor 
gastric digestion. 

Prof. Clouston of Edinburgh says, "Alcohol is a 
food and may in a diluted form be a very valuable 
adjunct to ordinary foods by exciting appetite, im- 
proving digestion and stimulating certain nutri- 
tive processes." 

When the nerves, vessels and glands lack vigor, 
as in old age or chronic dyspepsia, a small amount 
of mild wine may at times be beneficial, but the great 
danger with alcohol lies in excess. When taken 
habitually and immoderately, alcohol helps time to 
produce the effects of age and may prove to be what 
Dr. Dickinson called "A genius of degeneration." 
In quantity, alcohol destroys instead of mildly 
stimulating, and causes a secretion of alkaline 
mucous which interferes with digestion and tends 
toward acute dyspepsia, chronic gastritis and 
ulceration of the stomach walls. Continued exces- 
sive alcoholic irritation of the stomach has been 
known to lead to overgrowth of connective tissue, 
atrophy of the gastric glands and permanent cessa- 
tion of the gastric functions. 

It has been frequently said that alcohol taken in- 
ternally protects the body from infection but this is 
not true. Hydrochloric acid is the natural stomach 
guardian, and whereas alcohol is a preservative and 
of great industrial, pathological and domestic value, 
when fed to the stomach in any quantity, it tends to 
lessen the vital resistance of the body to infection. 
Prof. Metchnikoff has said, "Besides its deleterious 
influence on the nervous system and other im- 
portant parts of our body, alcohol has a harmful 
action on the white blood cells — the agents of 
natural defense against infective microbes." 



ALCOHOL 385 

A single dose of strong alcoholic liquor, such as 
brandy, may produce valuable and beneficial reflex 
effects when administered pathologically to over- 
come fainting or swooning; it causes the heart to 
beat more rapidly and raises the blood pressure. 
Alcohol is quickly absorbed and it exerts a marked 
action upon the blood, causes the oxygen to be re- 
tained and hence diminishes the oxidation of the 
tissues; this naturally leads to the accumulation of 
unused fat and to the condition of obesity so often 
evident with those who habitually take much 
alcohol. 

Alcohol is an antipyretic and is largely used in 
fevers as a means of reducing the body temperature. 
Sir Thomas Fraser says that nothing else can com- 
pete with alcohol as a food in desperate febrile 
cases, and in addition its great value in allaying 
fever and its narcotic action make it of great patho- 
logical worth if administered with much care, so 
that the nervous and circulatory systems of the 
patient are not deleteriously affected by the treat- 
ment. Alcohol is also used at times to advantage 
under medical direction for malnutrition, diabetes, 
etc. The use of any drug, at any time, is fraught 
with danger and should be discountenanced as much 
as possible, but alcohol is of as much use, patho- 
logically, as any other drug, and possibly more, and 
it may prove of value under abnormal physical con- 
ditions and lessened health if used with intelligence 
and discretion. 

Patent Medicines 

Patent medicines are consumed in the United 
States to an alarming extent, $230,000,000 it is said 
being spent annually for this purpose. If any re- 



386 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

form is needed in this country in regard to the use 
of alcohol it should be directed, and this at once, at 
the manufacturers and distributors of drugged 
alcohol potions which, advertised as panaceas with 
wondrous healing charms, are but vile, poisonous, 
narcotic concoctions with alcohol as the prime in- 
gredient. The average patent medicine is "dope"; 
all are heavily drugged and none have any place in 
the life or stomach of an average healthy person or 
normal individual leading an average sort of life. 
The medicines — eliminants, neutralizers and tonics 
— that the body needs can be obtained by the in- 
telligent use of food; and health can always be 
realized in full measure if we but obey the Laws 
of Nature in regard to our mode of life, or at least 
follow Nature's laws and take food and drink in 
harmony with the extent of our muscular activity. 
Many patent medicines are habit-forming and 
practically all are strongly alcoholic. If a person 
drinks beer, wine or whiskey he knows that he is 
drinking some alcohol and he is apt to be cognizant 
of the danger which ever accompanies the use of 
alcohol in any form. Many a person drinks a 
medicine exhibiting a blind faith in its healing 
power and without the knowledge that he is drink- 
ing alcohol. Moreover, many patent medicines con- 
tain drugs mixed with alcohol that produce a com- 
bination deadly to any human or animal constitu- 
tion. In many cases the entire apparent worth of 
a medicine is due to its alcoholic content, and in 
other cases the alcohol in medicine is rendered 
deadly by its combination with vile drugs. A Com- 
mittee to investigate Patent and Proprietary Medi- 
cines was appointed by the British House of Com- 



ALCOHOL 387 

mons in 1912. The report of this Committee says, 
in part: "There can be no doubt that many persons 
acquire the 'drink habit' by taking these prepara- 
tions, either knowing that they are alcoholic, since 
they can be purchased and consumed without giving 
rise to the charge of 'drinking,' or in ignorance that 
they are highly intoxicating liquors. The further 
charge is made that their drug content may lead to 
the 'drug habit.' " Millions of suffering people are 
being persuaded by artful and unscrupulous adver- 
tising to purchase and swallow health-destroying 
compounds. The drugs that they contain may 
stimulate or result in apparent stimulation for a 
brief period and the victim imagines that he is being 
benefited; continuing the use of the much heralded 
nostrum, he ultimately may learn with sorrow that 
the poisonous concoction has augmented his ailment 
and reduced his vitality. Many a mind and body 
that could have been quickly restored to health by 
intelligent and natural eating and exercise have 
been blighted and even ruined by criminal com- 
mercialism. 

Alcohol as a pure beer or a mild wine may, at 
times or under certain conditions, be beneficial, but 
alcohol as a patent medicine is usually the concoc- 
tion of ignorance and avarice and its manufacture, 
distribution and consumption are reprehensible 
and criminal. Yet there are thousands and thou- 
sands of people in this country who denounce 
scathingly the use of alcoholic drinks and yet are 
unconscious victims and advocates of vile, alcoholic, 
drugged and poisonous potions, which they feel 
their systems demand at times and are habitually 
benefited by. 



388 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Commercial Division of Alcoholic Drinks 

The alcoholic drinks of commerce can be gen- 
erally divided into three prime classes : 

1. Beer and Ales, 

2. Wines, 

3. Spirits or distilled liquors. 

Beer 

Beer is a beverage obtained by a process of 
alcoholic fermentation, mainly from cereals (chiefly 
malted barley), hops and water. 

A history of beer extends over several thousand 
years, and beer made from malt or red barley is 
mentioned in Egyptian writings of 1300 B. C. 
Beer is a popular drink of the Anglo-Saxon and 
Teutonic branches of the Caucasian Race. The 
composition of beer can be roughly stated as: 



Water, 




90.0 


per cent. 


Albumen, 




0.5 




Sugar, 




1.5 




Mineral, 




0.4 




Extractives, 


3.1 




Alcohol, 




4.5 






100.00 




The consumption 


of beer and malt liquors in the 


greatest producing 


and 


consuming countries, is as 


follows : 








Country 




Year Consumption in Gallons 


United States 




1914 


2,053,457,082 


Germany 




1909 


1,703,553,000 


British Isles 




1909 


1,397,314,800 


Austria 




1908 


492,941,000 


Belgium 




1909 


411,735,000 


France 




1909 


375,729,000 


Russia 




1908 


231,445,000 



ALCOHOL 389 

The 1905 statistics give an average consumption 
of beer per person per annum as : 

British Isles 27.9 Gallons 

Germany 26.3 

United States 19.9 

The American consumption per capita has held 
at about 20 to 21 gallons during the past few years 
and later foreign figures are not available. It is 
estimated that the production of beer in the world 
in 1914 was 8,750,000,000 gallons, sufficient to fill 
the Panama Canal. The United States produced 
at the rate of 22 gallons per person, but Bavaria 
made 61 gallons and Belgium 58 gallons per person. 
At the other end of the scale is Japan, with less than 
half a pint per annum per person, or less than 3/10 
of 1 per cent, of the American production; Spain 
produces on the basis of only half a gallon of beer 
per person per annum. 

The great American beer producing states, ac- 
cording to the statistics for the year 1914, are: 



New York 


14,040,387 Barrels 


Pennsylvania 


8,008,786 


Illinois 


6,987,568 


Wisconsin 


5,278,989 


Ohio 


5,147,419 


Missouri 


4,142,160 



It is also interesting to note that Prohibition 
states produced, according to government records, 
712,946 barrels of beer; the Near-Prohibition states 
7,606,113 barrels, the partially license states 30,- 
240,680 barrels, and the license states 27,589,416 
barrels. Production is not consumption and the 
Prohibition states consumed a fair share of the beer 
manufactured in the country. A saloon or liquor 
shop licensed by the Federal authorities, but operat- 
ing without state or local license, is known as a 



390 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



"Blind pig," and it is a fact that not only are alco- 
holic beverages manufactured in Prohibition states 
to a certain extent, but they are widely sold through 
"Blind pigs." In the fall of 1914, as a result of in- 
quiries, the Temperance Society found 766 Federal 
Licensed "Blind pigs" in the much heralded Model 
Prohibition state of Kansas. 

There are many classifications of Beer, but the 
prime types can be stated as Ales (light color), 
Stouts and Porters (dark color) and Beer — light 
and dark. 

The composition of typical beers has been given 
by various authorities as follows : 

Original 
Gravity 



Description 
English Mild Ales 

" Light Bitters & Ales 

" Pale and Stock Ales 

" Stouts and Porters 
Munich Draught Dark 

Light 

" Export 

" Bock Beer 
Pilsener Bottle 

Draught 
Berlin Dark 

" Light 

" Weissbier 
American Lager 

(Botton Fermentation) 
American Ales 

(Top Fermentation) 



1055.13 to 1071.78 

1038.31 to 1050.30 

1059.01 to 1076.8 

1054.11 to 1081.62 

1052.6 to 1056.4 

1048.05 

1054.3 to 1059.5 

1076.6 

1047.7 

1044.3 

1055.2 

1056.5 

1033.1 



Alcohol 
Per Cent. 
4.17 to 5.57 
3.81 to 4.61 
4.77 to 6.68 
3.90 to 6.14 



Solids 
Per Cent. 

5.7 to 7.3 
3.2 to 4.1 

5.8 to 7.1 
4.5 to 8.8 



3.38 to 3.76 6.45 to 6.58 
3.18 to 4.05 3.92 to 5.55 
3.68 to 4.15 6.32 to 7.48 



4.53 
3.47 
3.25 
3.82 
4.36 
2.64 



10.05 
4.90 
4.58 
6.17 
5.46 
3.01 



1046.7 to 1063.4 2.68 to 4.12 5.08 to 7.43 
1068. to 1084.2 5.50 to 6.46 5.53 to 8.60 



Another table compiled from data recorded by 
various authors is as follows: 



Description 
Vienna Lager 
Pilsener Lager 
Munich Export 

Salvator 
Berlin Weiss-bier 
Burton Pale Ale 
Dublin Stout XXX 
Milwaukee Lager 

" Bavarian 

St. Louis Export 
Philadelphia Lager 



Specific 

Gravity 

at 17.50 C. 

1.017 

1.016 

1.020 



1.012 



1.010 
1.019 
1.018 
1.015 



Alcohol 
Per Cent. 
3.70 
3.43 
3.94 
4.78 
2.82 
5.37 
6.78 
4.28 
5.06 
4.40 
4.29 



Solids 
Per Cent. 

5.71 

5.45 

6.72 
10.67 

4.21 

5.13 

9.52 

4.18 

6.26 

6.15 

5.22 



Acids 
0.008 
0.008 
0.010 



0.16 

0.29 

0.057 

0.074 

0.067 

0.086 



Ash 



0.55 

1.40 

0.196 

0.346 

0.312 

0.241 



ALCOHOL 391 

Wine 

Wine is the fermented product of fruit or plant 
juice, the Wines of Commerce being made from 
the grape. The art of wine making dates back 
almost as far as we have historical records of any 
kind, and the wine production of the world to-day 
amounts to about four and a quarter billion gallons 
per year, France being the greatest producer, with 
Italy second. 



Countries 


Production in gallons 




1912 


France 


1,568,751,645 


Italy 


1,195,612,286 


Spain 


375,121,400 


Algeria 


176,232,588 


Argentine 


108,309,700 


Russia 


100,384,600 


Portugal 


95,761,625 


Hungary 


70,533,390 



Germany appears as the eleventh on the list with 
63,400,800 gallons, the United Staten is thirteenth 
with 42,267,200 gallons and Canada is twenty- 
eighth with 1,056,680 gallons. The wine consump- 
tion per capita in various countries is given in the 

following table : 

6 PERIOD 

Country 1891-1895 1901-1905 

Gallons per head Gallons per head 



France 


23.0 


30.8 


Italy 


20.6 


25.1 


Spain 


21.1 


18.5 


Portugal 


11.0 


17.1 


Austria-Hungary 


2.9 


3.9 


Germany 


1.19 


1.45 


United States 


0.30 


0.43 


Britain 


0.37 


0.32 



392 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Wines are divided into many classes but the 
prime subdivisions are "charged" (i. e., sparkling), 
and "still" (i. e., non-effervescing). They are also 
classified according to color, i. e., white and red, and 
are named after the place of their production, or if 
Type Wines, after the place that first made the 
type famous. Champagne is the standard "charged" 
wine, and it is light in color; sparkling Burgundy 
is a popular effervescing red wine. German or 
Rhine wines are light in color, or "white." French 
wines are both white and red but claret is red and 
French Burgundy and Italian Chianti are more 
popular as red wines than as white. 

The following table gives the analysis of certain 



"type" wines 


* 
















n 'o 








3 










O £l 


k 


eg 




< 


4-> 

OS 


B 




"3 


Descriptions c 


"3 


3 

o 


«3 




J3 
3 


V 


fee 
3 


o 


<o 


< 


w 


< 


b* 


m 


o 


CO « 


o< 


French 10.31 


2.97 


20.97 


1.71 


1.23 




7.11 


1.10 




Clarets to 


to 


to 


to 


to 




to 


to 




13.76 


4.38 


29.57 


3.01 


2.50 




9.01 


3.97 




Cham- 12.56 


3.23 


19.78 


1.05 


2.04 


.... 


6.50 


1.32 


7.75 


pange to 


to 


to 


to 


to 




to 


to 


to 


14.44 


5.22 


30.33 


2.53 


2.76 




9.05 


13.86 


9.55 


Sherry 19.94 


3.3 


48.9 


4.2 





3.75 


4.3 


30.2 





All the figures given, excepting Alcohol are in 
grams per litre. 

Distilled Spirits 

The art of distillation and making spirits was ap- 
parently known to the Ancients, but distillation 
from grain did not become a popular industry in 
Northern Europe until the end of the Seventeenth 
Century. The principal spirit-producing countries 
in 1905 were: 



ALCOHOL 393 

Russia 170,000,000 Gallons 

Germany 146,014,000 

United States 125,042,000 

France 160,584,000 

Austria-Hungary 95,898,000 

Britain 48,520,000 

In 1914 the consumption of spirits in the United 
States was 146,397,253 gallons, which was about the 
same as 1913, but 10 per cent, over that of 1910. 

With regard to the consumption in gallons, per 
head of population, the following figures are of 
interest : 

Denmark 2.4 

Austria-Hungary 1.98 

Germany 1.43 

Holland 1.42 

France 1.37 

Sweden 1.36 

United States 1.26 

Belgium 1.10 

Russia .95 

Britain .91 

The manufacture of spirits consists broadly in 
converting starchy and saccharine matter into 
alcohol, the latter product being subsequently 
separated, concentrated, and rectified. Brandy and 
rum are sugar-derived spirits, and whiskey, vodka, 
gin and corn brandy are starch-derived spirits. 

Whiskey 

Whiskey is a distilled liquor made from fermented 
grain mash and usually contains about 50 to 60 per 
cent, of alcohol. All Scotch whiskeys are distilled 
at about 72 per cent, of alcohol by volume, and 
mature whiskeys contain 45 to 60 per cent, of 
alcohol, according to age, humidity of storage, etc. 



394 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Gin 

Gin is made in much the same way as whiskey, 
but the distilled liquor is left colorless and is flavored 
by distilling in pot stills with juniper berries, anise 
seed, etc. Holland gin is made from rye mash and 
is distilled only in pot stills with juniper berries. 
It contains about 40 per cent, of alcohol. The 
essential oil of Juniper is a powerful diuretic, i. e., it 
tends to increase the secretion and discharge of 
urine. 

Brandy 

Brandy is made by distilling wine or the fer- 
mented juice of other fruit, such as apples, peaches, 
cherries, blackberries, etc. The best Cognac is made 
by distilling a good quality of white wine. Brandy 
usually contains 47 to 54 per cent, of alcohol by 
volume; it owes its peculiar flavor to oenanthic 
ether. German Kirschwasser is Cherry Brandy. 

Rum 

Rum is made from fermented molasses or mac- 
erated sugar cane colored with burnt sugar. It 
usually contains about 55 per cent, of alcohol. 

Vodka 

Vodka was originally made in pot stills, of rye, 
with an addition of 20 per cent, of barley malt for 
saccharification; it is now made of potatoes and 
maize, with an addition of green rye malt. The 
spirit is manufactured at a strength of between 90 
and 96 per cent, and then "broken down" for retail 
purposes to 60 and 40 per cent, of alcohol. 



ALCOHOL 395 

Liqueurs and Cordials 

Liqueurs and cordials are unually strong aromatic 
alcoholic beverages compounded from grain alcohol 
with various flavoring essences. Absinthe, now gen- 
erally outlawed, contained as high as 72 per cent, 
of alcohol and was extremely poisonous. 

Miscellaneous Alcoholic Drinks 

In addition to the above classification, many 
alcoholic drinks are made in the homes, such as 
fruit- juice wines (currant, elderberry, raspberry, 
cranberry, orange, gooseberry or rhubarb) and 
cider, and these decoctions generally contain from 
5 to 12 per cent, of alcohol. Cider is usually pro- 
duced by hand presses in family orchards. When 
newly pressed, sweet cider is generally wholesome, 
but it soon becomes intoxicating. When the 
alcoholic content has reached about 9 per cent., the 
ferment of acetic acid begins to work and it soon 
changes to vinegar. 

Medicated wines are also on the market, but these 
are far more popular in Britain than in our country. 
Most of these wines contain 17 to 20 per cent, of 
alcohol and the manufacturer of one such wine ad- 
vertises that their product "gives a strength that is 
lasting, because in each wineglassful there is a 
standard amount of nutriment/' this wine is also 
described as the world's greatest tonic, restorative 
blood-maker and nerve-food. Such statements are 
obviously false and misleading and, being impos- 
sible, they reflect upon the intelligence of the public. 

Comparative Consumption of Spirits, Wines, Beers, Etc. 

The following table shows the annual per capita 
consumption of malt and spirituous liquors in the 
United States covering a period since 18.50: 



396 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Year 


Spirits 


Wine 


Beers 


Total 


1850 


2.23 


0.27 


1.58 


4.08 


1860 


2.87 


0.34 


3.22 


6.43 


1870 


2.07 


0.31 


5.32 


7.70 


1880 


1.27 


0.56 


8.25 


10.08 


1890 


1.40 


0.46 


13.67 


15.53 


1900 


1.28 


0.40 


16.08 


17.76 


1905 


1.42 


0.41 


18.02 


19.85 


1910 


1.42 


0.65 


20.09 


22.19 


1914 


1.46 


0.52 


20.52 


22.50 



INCREASE IN THE PER CAPITA 
CONSUMPTION OF ALL ALCOHOLIC 
LIQUORS DURING THE LAST FIFTY 
THREE YEARS IN THE UNITED STATES, 



Z 
Q 



1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 




1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 



SCALE FOR YEARS. 

Fig. 23 



ALCOHOL 



307 



During the past 50 years the average consump- 
tion of spirits per person has decreased 40 per cent. ; 
the consumption of wines has increased 60 per cent, 
and the consumption of beer has increased about five 
times in 50 years and 13 times since 1850. There 
has been practically no increase in the consumption 
of alcoholic beverages per capita since 1906, the 
national consumption increasing with the increase 
of population, but remaining practically constant 
per capita. 



DIAGRAM SHOWING THE CONSUMPTION OF 
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IN THE U. S. A. 
TOTAL AND PER CAPITA-PLOTTED FROM GOVY. REPORTS. 
2.50 
2.25 
3 2.00 

- 1.50 
1.25 
1.00 

.75 

.50 

.25 

















— 1 


y 


















JW 












r 


b 


r&y 












& 


0- 

K j 










■ 








c? 


s J 




















.<* 


WZ 


^* 












<^\&v. 


^ 














J$% 


f 


\ 












tuNtf* 


m 


r 














to 


TM^t-T 



















o o 

CO <0 



o o«no«oo«no^t 

r- co «o <j o> o o -** 

<o 2222-522 

SCALE FOR~YEARS. 

Fig. 24 




The following table has been compiled by Dr. J. 
Gabrielsson on behalf of the Swedish Temperance 
Committee to show the comparative annual per 
capita consumption of whiskey, beer and wine in a 
number of countries during the years 1906-1910: 



398 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 





Whiskey 


Beer 


Wine 


Pure Alcohol 


Countries 


(Liter 50%) 


(Liter) 


(Liter) 


(Liter) 


Norway 


2.87 


18.43 


1.16 


2.37 


Sweden 


6.8 


23.8 


0.5 


4.9 


Denmark 


10.44 


36.16 


1.50 


6.82 


Finland 


2.31 


7.82 


0.61 


1.56 


European Russia 


6.09 


6.52 


0.86 


3.41 


German Empire 


7.29 


104.98 


4.76 


7.47 


Netherlands 


7.16 


27.28 


1.55 


5.01 


Belgium 


5.47 


220.82 


5.16 


10.58 


Great Britain and Ireland 4.17 


123.06 


1.23 


9.67 


France 


8.82 


71.66 


144.00 


22.93 


Spain 


3.24 


84.05 


69.50 


14.02 


Portugal 


1.04 


0.95 


92.58 


12.59 


Switzerland 


3.82 


69.01 


55.65 


13.71 


Italy 


1.02 


1.63 


128.58 


17.29 


Austria-Hungary 


8.20 


34.16 


19.84 


7.68 


Roumania 


5.50 


2.39 


23.62 


5.20 


Bulgaria 


0.62 


3.48 


25.74 


3.02 


Servia 


8.10 


3.68 


20.21 




Greece 


1.68 


0.82 


100.04 


13.87 


British South Africa 1.91 


5.71 


3.76 


1.85 


Australia 


4.04 


55.56 


2.33 


5.65 


New Zealand 


3.97 


44.78 


0.94 


4.61 


Japan 


0.60 


0.47 


15.14 


2.36 


United States 


5.51 


76.25 


2.37 


6.89 


Canada 


4.23 


22.61 


0.42 


3.31 


Brazil 




1.44 


4.71 


.... 


Argentine 


8.44 


3.14 


41.56 


10.21 


Chili 




12.26 


91.24 





Economic Waste of Alcohol Consumption 

The capital now invested in the manufacture of 
alcoholic drinks in the United States and the growth 
of the business is generally given in the following 
table — the figures being obtained from the U. S. 
Census Bulletins : 



Census 

1850 

1870 

1890 

1910 



Spirits 
$5,409,334 
15,545,116 
31,006,178 
72,450,000 



Wines 

'$2,334,394 

5,792,783 

27,908,000 



Malt Liquors 

$4,072,380 

48,779,435 

232,471,290 

671,158,000 



Total 

$9,481,714 

66,658,945 

269,270,251 

771,506,933 



The Industry in 1910 employed 62,290 wage 
earners with a yearly pay-roll of $45,252,000. The 
U. S. Statistical Abstract also showed that 169,449 
persons were employed as saloon keepers and 
bartenders. The cost of material used in making 



ALCOHOL 399 

liquor during the year was stated at $139,199,000. 
The total Federal Revenue from the manufacture 
and sale of alcoholic liquors during the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1915, was: 

Distilled Spirits $144,619,699.37 

Fermented Liquors 79,328,946.72 



Total $223,948,646.09 

The wholesale market value of alcoholic bever- 
ages sold in the United States per annum, as de- 
termined by the U. S. Census Bureau, is: 

Value of Distilled liquors (spirits) $204,699,000 
" Malt liquors (beer) 374,732,000 

" Vinous liquors (wine) 13,121,000 



Total $592,552,000 

The difference between this figure and the esti- 
mated cost to the consumer of from $1,400,000,000 
to $2,456,000,000 represents the profit to the dealers 
and dispensers. The "American Grocer" estimates 
the retail expenditure at $1,725,000,000; the various 
Temperance and Prohibition Societies give figures 
generally of $2,250,000,000 to $2,456,000,000. On 
the basis of $2,000,000,000 annual expenditure for 
alcoholic beverages (the price paid for drinks over 
the bar is very high), the average cost per annum 
for an average family of five is $100. 

The Temperance Society of the M. E. Church 
maintains that the Liquor Traffic of the country 
costs each man, woman and child $50 per annum. 
Their figures for losses and waste for a single year 
are as follows: 



400 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The retail liquor bill for 1914 $2,290,000,000 

7%. decreased efficiency for 20,000,000 

moderate-drinking workers 840,000,000 

Partial lost time of 600,000 drunkards 270,000,000 
" " 220,670 paupers and 

prisoners 99,301,500 

Partial lost time of 207,791 insane and feeble- 
minded 31,168,650 

Time of handlers and sellers of liquors 600,000,000 

By premature death, 65,897 513,909,600 

" insane and idiots 240,899,600 

Interest on 75 % : cost of alms houses, asylums 

and prisons 34,700,000 

Three-fourths cost of arrests, etc. 60,000,000 



Total $4,979,979,350 

It is needless to say that these figures are but the 
estimates of enthusiasts. In 1913 the British United 
Kingdom with a population of 46,000,000, spent 
$807,525,000 for alcoholic drinks, or $17.55 per 
person, or $31 per annum for each person over 20 
years of age. The consumption of Beer for each 
man, woman and child averaged 27.3 gallons; 
spirits 0.69 gallons and wine 0.25 gallons, a total 
of 28.24 gallons per person and 49.13 gallons per 
adult over 20. It seems, therefore, that an average 
American family of five spends $2 per week on 
alcohol, and a British family of the same size con- 
sumes over 25 per cent, more liquor and pays about 
$1.69 per week for it. This amount of money in- 
vested in a high class Building Loan Association, 
or other institution that pays good interest and 
demands regular weekly or monthly payments, 
would grow to $1,000 in about eight years and 
prove a most acceptable nest-egg for any family to 
fall back upon in old age or in case of adversity. 



ALCOHOL -aol 

Adulteration of Alcoholic Drinks 

A great evil accompanying the use of alcoholic 
beverages is the fact that a large proportion of such 
drinks are adulterated. Alcohol administered in 
the form of a pure wine or beer may at times per- 
form desirable functions and under certain con- 
ditions be acceptable to the human system; pure 
whiskey may occasionally be used to advantage 
pathologically, but when alcoholic drinks are desired 
by intelligent people, they should be pure and as 
harmless to the system as it is possible to make a 
liquid containing a poisonous spirituous and in- 
toxicating element. Alcohol itself has a deleterious 
effect upon the human system, but when "doped," 
and adulterated, alcoholic drinks are particularly 
blighting and an outrage to a long-suffering society. 
They are the product of unscrupulous, rapacious 
and parsimonious manufacturers engaged in an in- 
dustry in which adulterations and falsification 
abound. The average whiskey contains harmful 
fusel oil, tannic acid and a large number of artificial 
impurities. There is no government guarantee of 
the purity of alcoholic liquids. Five, ten or fifteen 
year old whiskey may be made in a day by being 
treated with different chemicals and it is said that 
"Much of the 'Bourbon' and 'Rye/ which is sup- 
posed to come from Kentucky, is prepared in 
Illinois." The periodical of the liquor trade, 
Barrels and Bottles, recently said, "What will 
happen to our rectifiers if the day ever comes when 
the U. S. Pure Food regulations are tuned up to the 
Venezuelan standard of requiring labels indicating 
the actual ingredients of alcoholic beverages?" 
Distillers add creosote (also used to preserve ham 
and give it the desired smoky odor) to domestic 



402 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

alcoholic product to make "Scotch Whiskey." Most 
of the "Scotch" sold in America is "faked," being 
but "a chemical decoction of various poisons added 
to the primitive poison of alcohol." An authority 
has said that over ninety per cent, of whiskey dis- 
pensed under the name of "Scotch" in this country 
is "fake," being merely alcohol colored and flavored 
with cheap coal tar products and glycerine, or 
cheaper glucose substitutes, to give it body. Un- 
adulterated whiskey contains poisons other than 
alcohol but these should be eliminated in the process 
of manufacture and purification, instead of being 
intensified. Alcohol itself is a poison, but when 
poisons are added to poison "the drinker is given 
his alcohol with fierce degrading, tissue-destroying 
ingredients on the side." Vance Thompson tells 
us of an investigation held recently in Albany by the 
State authorities of New York, on which occasion 
a noted chemist showed the Commission the "tricks 
of the trade." The distillers and their experts, 
tasters and lobbyists were sent into an outer room. 
The chemist then filled a score of glasses with wood- 
alcohol while the Commissioners looked on with in- 
terest. In each glass he dropped different chemi- 
cals, making for color, odor or flavor. When he 
had mixed up doped drinks and brought them to 
the proper degree of strength and viscosity the ex- 
pert whiskey men were called in. The professional 
tasters took up the glasses, one after the other; 
and they said, "this is rye whiskey, three years old 
— this is Bourbon whiskey — this is gin — this is 
fine Holland gin — this is Medford rum — this is 
brandy, five years in the cask — this is Scotch — this 
Irish" — and so on. Each of the liquors was in 
reality "faked" wood alcohol and they represented 



ALCOHOL 403 

as deadly poisons as the bodily tissues can be sub- 
jected to. When the tests were concluded the 
chemists explained what had been done and said, 
"An overwhelming per cent, of the liquors sold in 
the United States are made just that way." The 
wine fakers and beer fakers are no whit behind the 
distillers of strong liquors. Much wine is sold to- 
day that is entirely an artificial chemical product 
and that has had no connection whatever with a 
grape. Dr. O' Gorman, before the British Medical 
Association in 1900 said, "The markets of the world 
are incredibly flooded with imitations, adulterations 
and chemical trade mixtures ( particularly in wines ) , 
so much so that even eminent wine merchants have 
declared the impossibility of the large majority of 
drinkers ever tasting even tolerably pure liquor." 
Dr. Lethaby, after investigating the Wine Industry 
of France and Germany, said, "A great part of the 
wine has ceased to be the juice of the grape at all. 
It is hardly possible to obtain a sample of genuine 
wine, even at first hand." It is said that there 
are nineteen hop substitutes and fifteen malt 
substitutes in use to-day in the manufacture of 
beer. Poisonous preservatives are used ranging 
from arsenious acid, a deadly poison, to salicylic 
acid which is injurious to the liver and kidneys, 
in an endeavor to make "dishonest" beer act 
honestly. The Committee on Food Standards of 
the Association of State and National Food and 
Dairy Departments declared "Malt beer has become 
extinct in America." The American Society of 
Equity, said to be composed of three million 
farmers, in a resolution denounced the preparation 
of beer from "deleterious ingredients," asserting 
that such beer was sold as a pure barley and hops 



404 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

product, and the National Consumers League has 
declared that "beer is often made of glucose, sugar, 
rice, rotten corn, starch, preservatives, beer color, 
etc." Pure beer can be kept indefinitely, but the 
average American beer has to be kept away from 
the light and even dark bottles are being advocated 
to retard putrefactive fermentation and its ex- 
plosion into rottenness. Authorities have said that 
if European laws, in regard to the manufacture of 
beer, were made effective in this country they would 
put American brewers out of business, as we make 
practically no beer of malts and hops in this country 
that can be lagered — that is, stored for three 
months. It has also been said that when beer in 
certain European countries is condemned as bad, 
the governments of these countries permit such beer 
to be exported, and this beer generally goes to the 
countries which, like America, accept it without 
inspection and test. 

Fraudulent Advertisements 

The false and diabolical advertising of alcoholic 
beverages should be prohibited by law, as this prac- 
tice is opposed to the policy of that true education 
which alone can correct the alcohol evil. A manu- 
facturer of whiskey claims that it is invaluable for 
"run-down women and delicate, undeveloped chil- 
dren," whereas any strong alcoholic liquor would 
be a deadly poison to them. Such advertisements 
are obviously fraudulent and a national calamity. 
Prof. Nothnagel of Vienna has said, "It is a sin to 
give children wine or beer. It is criminal to teach 
that wine nourishes. The dreadful neurasthenia of 
our day is due just to this early use of alcohol." 
We see it in the papers that "Beer is liquid bread," 



ALCOHOL 4o:> 

and, of course, bread is the staff of life, therefore, 
beer is a similar nutrient and sustainer. Pure beer, 
scientifically made, could be used occasionally in 
moderation by many people to advantage and it 
would be far healthier than the excessive or even 
moderate use of many popular "drugged" temper- 
ance drinks, but by no stretch of the imagination 
can beer be considered a food substitute for bread. 
It has been said that in the making of beer the 
sprouting, soaking and growth of the yeast plant 
in the liquid destroys practically all the food value 
of the original grain. Baron Von Liebig, the Ger- 
man scientist, says, "It is now possible to demon- 
strate with mathematical certainty that, so far as 
enriching the blood is concerned (food value), the 
flour that will lie on the point of a knife affords 
more nourishment than four measures of the best 
Bavarian beer; and that anybody who drinks a 
measure of beer daily would thus imbibe in one 
year about as much nourishment as is contained in 
a pound of bread." 

In a Syracuse, N. Y., paper of April, 1916, ap- 
peared a "scientific" beer advertisement of a quarter 
page, headed, B — r and other Foods. The adver- 
tisement reads, "There's food value in beer — as well 

as beverage enjoyment. A bottle of may not be 

offered as a complete meal, but it has its place in the 
meal comparable to bread, milk or any other of the 
dishes or drinks that are part of the well-balanced 
lunch or dinner." (The italics are mine.) After 
other statements are made regarding the merits and 
food value of beer ingredients, a chart is printed 
claiming to show graphically the comparative 
alcohol content and nutritious extract content of 
whiskey, wine, beer and milk and then appears the 
following table : 



406 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Average 










Composition of Bread 


Milk 


Beer 


Rhine Wine 


Whiskey 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Per cent 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Carbohydrates 52.0 


4.8 


5.0 


2.25 


None 


Protein 7.0 


3.5 


0.5 


None 


None 


Fat 0.4 


3.7 


None 


None 


None 


Mineral Substances 1.0 


0.7 


0.2 


0.2 


None 


Alcohol by Weight None 


None 


3.75 


8.0 


40.0 



The chart accompanying this table, if scaled, 
shows the following comparative nutriment of the 
liquids considered : 

Milk 100 

Beer 46.2 

Rhine Wine 20.8 

As milk has a calorific value, or food value, of 
675 calories per litre (1,000 grams or 2.2 lbs.) then 
beer is shown to have a food value of 312 calories 
per litre, and Rhine wine 140 calories. The brewery 
and dealers behind this advertisement have, there- 
fore, decided in the interest of their business to 
eliminate alcohol, which is a carbohydrate, from 
their tables and charts. They, therefore, uncon- 
sciously denounce alcohol, graphically portray it as 
a deleterious agent buti gnore it as a carbohydrate, 
for if they did not do so, their charts would show 
whiskey and wine possessing far greater food value 
than beer. 

Prof. Lusk, one of our greatest dietetic authori- 
ties, says that a litre of German beer "contains 3 to 4 
per cent, of alcohol and 5 to 6 per cent, extractives. 
It yields 450 calories to the body, only half being 
derived from alcohol, the rest from the dextrine and 
protein-like extractives." Atwater and Benedict 
have shown conclusively that alcohol is a food when 
used in small doses and it can, scientifically con- 
sidered, take the place economically of fat and 
carbohydrates in metabolism. The conditions re- 



ALCOHOL 407 

quired are that alcohol shall be administered in very- 
small doses not exceeding in the aggregate 72 
grams of alcohol — 500 calories per day, that the 
person is perfectly healthy and that the test covers 
only digestion and metabolism and not brain or 
motor efficiency, quality of work performed or 
effect upon the nervous system. They used in their 
daily tests alcohol equivalent in the aggregate to 
that contained in a bottle of claret, administered in 6 
doses ; the alcohol furnished 20 per cent, of the total 
food fed per day for 23 days to a man doing no 
work (2,500 calories) and it represents about 14 
per cent, of the food fed to the man at work con- 
suming 3,500 total calories per day. Alcohol under 
no condition can serve to repair and build tissue, 
and unlike other foods, it acts as a drug in a manner 
which may, unless judiciously used, outweigh all 
its theoretical usefulness as a food and even inter- 
fere with the digestion and absorption of other 
foods. But why should beer advertisers consider 
all the extractives in their product of food value, 
which experts seriously question or deny, and ignore 
alcohol from their computations of carbohydrates 
and food value charts? Considering alcohol and the 
extractives given in the before stated tables, the 
food value of the substances becomes 



Whiskey 


2800 calories 


Bread 


2446 


Milk 


684 " 


Rhine wine 


652 


Beer 


488 



Hence whiskey, the product of the distilleries, 
which the breweries to save themselves have decided 
to stigmatize, has a greater "food" value than bread 



408 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



and four times that of milk — nature's liquid food, 
an obviously absurd conclusion. Scientific investi- 
gations, including those pursued by the U. S. 
Government, have resulted in alcoholic beverages 
being given "food value" generally as follows: 





Calories 




Calories 


Beverage 


per litre 


Beverage 


per litre 


Brandy-cognac 


3900 


Martini Cocktail 


1750 


Benedictine 


4400 


Port Wine 


1500 


Creme de Menthe 


3700 


Sherry 


1400 


Jamaica Rum 


4900 


Rhine 


690 


Rye whiskey 


3040 


Champagne 


830 


Gin 


2320 


Claret 


670 


Ale 


620 


Cider 


520 


Porter 


560 


Lager Beer draft 


480 



All such figures are erroneous for they fail to 
consider the effect of strong or immoderately used 
alcoholic liquids, physiologically upon the human 
body and its delicate nervous system. Alcoholic 
beverages should, therefore, only be considered 
pathologically and medicinally and not as nutri- 
ment. Alcohol administered scientifically in small 
doses in illness is a food to a limited extent. It may 
sustain and does save life in cases of acute disease; 
when the body is in an abnormal condition, it may 
also be used to great advantage, with care and judg- 
ment, but no alcoholic beverages should ever be 
taken habitually and in health as a food. If beer 
were "liquid bread," as is claimed, then a person 
should be able to obtain from beer alone all the 
nourishment required to sustain the body doing 
manual muscular work. According to a brewer's 
advertisement, this would be obtained by drinking 
about 23 bottles of beer per day, but the alcohol 
content (accumulative) would prevent assimilation 



ALCOHOL 409 

of the claimed extractive nutrients, and, more- 
over experts say that these extractives have no real 
substantial food value, hence we again reach an in- 
evitable conclusion which must be stated as reductio 
ad absurdum. The following is an extract from an 
official Army pamphlet entitled "Alcohol and the 
Tower of Resistance" circulated among German 
soldiers : 

"There is no justification for calling beer 'liquid bread'; a 
glass of heavy beer costing twenty-five pfennigs has no more 
nourishment than a piece of cheese costing one pfennig. 
Almost all excesses and disturbances in the army are traced to 
drink. . . . It is mostly beer that causes the mischief. 
Beer is not the harmless drink it is supposed to be." 

A British manufacturer of ale advertised that 
"A glass of good beer (English ale is probably re- 
ferred to) is as nourishing as a glass of good milk." 
An American brewer says that a glass of beer is 
46.2 per cent, as nourishing as a glass of milk, but 
the figures he submits indicate that theoretically, by 
chemical analysis, it should have food value equiva- 
lent to 71.4 per cent, that of milk. On this same 
basis English ale would theoretically approach the 
food value of milk. Such reasoning is, however, 
false in every detail, for ignoring the presence and 
effect of alcohol, we find that (1) milk contains 
nutritive fat as cream; beer has none; (2) milk con- 
tains a useful nutritive sugar, as a carbohydrate; 
the carbohydrate of beer is only one-fourth sugar, 
the balance being a gummy residue useless for pur- 
poses of nutrition; (3) milk contains flesh-forming 
albumen or proteid, whereas, beer contains a very 
small quantity of nitrogenous proteid which is 
mostly in the form of ammoniacal and amido-pro- 
ducts, which are excretory and non-nutrient. Dr. 



410 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Bowers, discussing the nourishing properties and 
food value of beer, has recently written : 

"We know exactly how much nutriment a glass of beer con- 
tains. It contains about five per cent, of malt extract — or 
one part in twenty, the food value of which is variable. 

"This extract consists of protein matter, converted and un- 
converted sugar, hop resin, and other substances of no dietary 
value, left as a residue after complete evaporation. In addi- 
tion, beer sometimes contains preservatives, such as sodium 
fluoride and salicylic acid, together with soda bicarbonate to 
neutralize the acidity, and to help put the foaming 'head' on 
it; also salt, to overcome the disagreeable taste — and perhaps 
inspire a languishing thirst for more of this liquid food.' 

"Dr. Wiley some time ago very effectually disposed of the 
status of salicylic acid and preservatives, and even the most 
enthusiastic exponents of 'food in beer' will hardly urge the 
use of hop resin as an article of diet. 

"As regards the recent claims that lecithin, or 'nerve fat/ 
has been discovered in beer, this is interesting, if true. If it 
has — despite all the painstaking negative analyses of many 
generations of chemists — it is quite safe to estimate that the 
total amount contained in four carloads of beer might approxi- 
mate the quantity concealed about the person of one vigorous 
fresh egg. Which would give it a nutritional value almost as 
high as that of the hole in a doughnut. 

"This leaves us a few grains of proteid and a small amount 
of sugar as the 'food' in beer. If the tissues are supplied with 
a liberal amount of water — although no one claims water as 
a food per se — life can be sustained for a very considerable 
time. Doctor Tanner fasted for forty days. Perhaps some 
beer-encouraged expert might do even better. He might if he 
could rid the beer of its four or five per cent, alcohol content 
— a content that in the absence of other food to attack would 
prey upon the tissues like a myriad of infinitesimal teeth. But 
if he did, the genial draft would no longer be beer." 

It is to be regretted that the present attitude on 
the part of brewers not only involves their divorce 
from the distillery interests which is reasonable and 
the extension of the European idea of Cafe and 
Beer Gardens which is good business, but they seem 
determined to entice women and children to be con- 



ALCOHOL 411 

siimers and champions of their product. The 
Brewers Journal has said, "The franchise will be 
extended to all women in this country — some day," 
and adds, "It will be comparatively easy to con- 
vince the women voters that beer and light wines 
are not detrimental to those accustomed to consum- 
ing them. The rapid development of the bottling 
trade shows that beer is a welcome adjunct to the 
family meal and women themselves enjoy taking a 
glass of beer in their own homes." On October 1, 
1914, the "Journal" said, "Newspaper advertising 
for beer should be designed to attract and appeal 
to women as well as men, for if beer is to be used 
in the home women must be won over to it." Hence 
the public are told that beer is "liquid bread," that it- 
is a food, a tonic, a blood enricher, an appetizer, 
nerve soothing, energy and strength creating, 
digestible and nourishing as well as thirst-satisfy- 
ing. Modern advertising is illustrated with women 
drinking and serving beer and the psychological 
effect must be great as well as diabolical. Beer is 
also recommended for nursing mothers and even for 
children and when any alcohol is advocated for 
minors the campaign, whether it be to exploit beer, 
wines, spirits or patent medicines, becomes criminal. 

Bevo — A Temperance Beer 

A new type of Beer, named Bevo, which is 
claimed to be satisfying, palatable, wholesome and 
non-intoxicating, has recently been placed on the 
market by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Associa- 
tion of St. Louis. Bevo is a brewer's response to 
the prohibition agitation and an attempt to safe- 
guard a business by producing products which con- 
form to popular demand. Bevo, we are told, tastes 



412 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

like beer, contains practically the same ingredients 
as beer and though possessing a neglible amount of 
alcohol (less than one-half of one per cent.) "has 
been served in beer bottles to beer drinkers for twc 
hours continuously without their discovering that 
it was not the usual beer." Without commenting 
on the absurdity of such a statement, it is evident 
from the testimony of many men, competent to pass 
an unbiased opinion, that the Anheuser-Busch 
chemists have, after several years of research work, 
produced a beer-substitute far superior to any of 
the horrible Near-Beer beverages which have been 
brought forward in the past to wean beer drinkers 
from their favorite alcoholic beverage. The pro- 
ducers and their enthusiastic friends tell us that 
Bevo has real food value for it contains rich malt 
and Saazer hops. "Science has taken nature's finest 
cereals and pure water and by following nature's 
own processes, has blended them into a bright, lively, 
foamy and nutritious beverage." Again we are told 
that "Bevo is a pure drink, composed of harmless 
ingredients. It is less dangerous than milk and 
water, particularly in the summer time, for it is a 
pasteurized product, put up in sterilized bottles." 
Apparently the aggressive advertising resorted to by 
brewers to stem the tide of temperance, is to be con- 
tinued in making a market for beer-substitutes, so 
Bevo will probably be advocated as a milk substitute 
and described as Liquid Bread. No beer or beer- 
substitute can ever take the place of milk which is 
nature's food drink, nor can any so-called temper- 
ance beer ever be considered comparable as a food 
and healthful drink with a fermented milk of similar 
alcoholic content. 



ALCOHOL 413 

The United States Revenue authorities and the 
St. Louis Health Commissioners have classed Bevo, 
in a legal sense, as non-alcoholic, and the St. Louis 
Park Commissioner, upon the findings of the City- 
chemist, has granted to venders permission to sell 
it in the public parks the same as Coco- Cola, Ginger 
Ale, Soda Water and other soft drinks. 

It has been said that "Bevo is to beer what 
postum is to coffee — all the virtues with the bad 
effects left out," but postum does not possess the 
virtues of coffee and it has evils peculiar to itself. 
If Bevo is to stand the test of time, it must be a far 
better substitute for beer than is postum for coffee, 
and being deprived of much of the alcoholic con- 
tent of beer, the public will grow to be more critical 
in regard to the wholesomeness of Bevo and similar 
beer-substitutes. The real healthful temperance 
drink of the future, mildly stimulating and whole- 
some, will probably be found in an Americanized 
modification of old fermented effervescent soured 
milks, with very low alcoholic content — not greater 
than that of Bevo. Such a drink will have real food 
and "lifting" value and tend toward health and 
longevity. 

Alcoholism a Vice of Certain Races 

Alcoholism can be considered primarily as a vice 
of the Christian branch of the Caucasian Race. 
Heavy drinking has been a peculiar blighting 
characteristic of the dominant, aggressive, blonde 
Teutons, Scandinavians, Anglo-Saxons and other 
northern branches of the race ; the more southern or 
brunette Caucasian being given to more temperate 
but habitual consumption of the lighter wines. 
Drunkenness among women in England, Scotland 



414 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

and certain other northern European countries is 
fearfully common and most deplorable, for the effect 
of alcohol upon women, because of their more sensi- 
tive nervous organism, is inevitably worse than its 
effect upon men. The subjugation of other races 
by the dominant northern Caucasians has resulted 
in their vices, as well as their virtues being foisted 
on many foreign peoples. Alcohol has done much 
to cause or accelerate the degeneration of peoples, 
peculiarly unfitted tempermentally and physically 
to withstand its ravages. There are peoples, how- 
ever, such as religious followers of Mohammed who 
have refused, because of the teachings of their 
prophet set forth in the Koran, to partake of the 
"delights of alcohol" although they do use im- 
moderately the drug caffeine in the form of coffee 
with syrupy consistency. The word "alcohol" is 
derived from the Arabic al-kohl, meaning "evil 
spirit." It is said that Lascar sailors, who visit the 
ports of the world, can be allowed shore leave with 
implicit confidence that they will return to their ship 
as sober as when they left it. Stiles tells us of a sea- 
man who, erring in this respect and being re- 
monstrated with by the captain, naively excused 
himself for his inebriated condition on the ground 
that he had embraced Christianity. 

The use of alcohol in China is not extensive as 
yet, but Caucasian manufacturers and dealers of 
alcoholic beverages are doing what they can to 
rapidly fix drinking customs upon that country, 
Large plants have recently been built in China to 
produce what the Chinese call "the Jesus poison" — 
a horrible profanation, but quite justifiable con- 
sidering Caucasian aggressive dominance in both 
religious and commercial fields. In Japan, 



ALCOHOL 415 

drunkenness was practically unknown until after 
the Revolution of 1868, and now when an intoxi- 
cated man is seen on the street, the natives are apt to 
say, "Here comes a Christian." The wag who took 
the scroll out of the extended right hand of the 
angel figurehead of the Missionary Ship building at 
Bath, Maine, (the left hand firmly clasped a bible) 
and substituted a bottle of whiskey horrified the 
earnest religious builders, but nevertheless symbol- 
ized the history and record of the Caucasian in 
world conquest. As late as 1901 an International 
Conference was held in Brussels, at which repre- 
sentatives from seventeen countries, including the 
United States, were present, to effect an agreement 
to check the alcohol evil in Central Africa. The 
articles agreed upon which practically established 
prohibition, were rectified by the various govern- 
ments and in one decade the consumption of liquor 
in Nigeria alone increased 61 per cent. Despite the 
sentiment manifested, the so-called civilized 
countries of the Caucasian Race have disgraced 
themselves repeatedly by their attitude toward the 
Foreign Liquor Trade. Since the Brussels Con- 
ference the various nations have vied with each 
other to "get the business" and it is said that repre- 
sentatives of the U. S. Government were re- 
sponsible at one time for the reduction of the tariff 
on importations of liquor into African territory. 
The manufacturer of alcoholic beverages in this 
country is not required to pay the usual government 
tax if his product is exported, and therefore Foreign 
Trade in alcohol is encouraged. The government 
of a "highly civilized" nation, through its agents, 
has been known to forbid in its possessions, the 
organization of temperance societies designed to 
protect the natives from alcoholism. 



416 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Effect of Alcohol on the Individual 

In small quantities alcohol generally produces a 
feeling of well-being, along with increased con- 
fidence in one's mental and physical powers. Larger 
quantities usually lead to excited nervous con- 
ditions, marked by laughter, loquacity and gesticu- 
lation; the face becomes flushed, the pulse is 
quickened, the eyes shine brighter; the tongue is 
loosened and the will power is weakened. The loss 
of self-control may be indicated by violent out- 
bursts of temper and expressions of egoistic un- 
reasonableness, or by the indulgence in maudlin 
sentimentality. As Cushny says, "The sense of re- 
sponsibility and the power of discrimination be- 
tween the trivial and the important are lost in a 
man under the influence of alcohol and the indi- 
vidual has no regard for the feelings of others, or 
the ordinary conventions of life. If the bout be 
further continued, the movements become uncer- 
tain, the speech becomes difficult and stammering, 
the walk becomes a stagger and a torpid slumber 
follows." The after-effect of the excessive use of 
alcohol is great depression, sometimes accompanied 
by nausea, headache, lack of appetite and acute 
gastric catarrh. Alcohol is hostile to application 
and true perserverance. It dissipates one's forces 
and "scattering" rather than "concentrating" is the 
essence of the mental state produced. Alcohol is 
riot conducive to original work. Schiller truly 
wrote, "Wine never invents anything," and Helm- 
holtz said, in reference to the inspirations of genius, 
"the smallest quantity of alcohol seems to scare 
them away." Stimulant and narcotic are in reality 
opposing terms and alcohol is never a true stimulant, 
and in quantity is positively a narcotic. Tea and 



ALCOHOL 417 

coffee taken moderately are stimulants, but like all 
other drugs tend to irritate and detrimentally 
affect the system. Stimulation should be unneces- 
sary for those whose health is what it should be, but 
when there is work to be done, and drugs are taken, 
it is generally preferable to partake of that which 
concentrates our forces, such as a cup of coffee, 
rather than that which scatters our forces, such as 
alcohol. It has been said that we tacitly contrast 
alcohol, a narcotic, with coffee, a recognized stimu- 
lant, when we acknowledge the difference between 
the feelings with which we should view the use of 
one and the other by the engineer of an express 
train. We instinctively feel that coffee will favor 
his unswerving attention to duty, keep him wide- 
awake and mindful of his responsibility, and that 
alcohol would make him less reliable and less 
mentally efficient. 

There is a great difference between what a man 
thinks that alcohol does for him and what an im- 
partial investigation really reveals. Stiles says, 
"The subjective impression is often an exaltation 
of capacity which objective testing fails utterly to 
confirm. A subject does certain problems before 
taking a drink of whiskey and comparable ones 
afterwards. He says that the second task was done 
with greater speed and with a nonchalant confidence 
in his results. The watch says that he was slower, 
and checking up the work shows that errors were 
more numerous. It is evident that his judgment of 
his own performance is unreliable." This is true 
also of manual operations. Alcohol tends to make 
a man bolder than he is by nature, or shall we say 
more foolhardy with an inhibition of the sense of 
proportion. There is an excellent little storv told 



418 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

of a mouse which came upon a little pool of whiskey 
spilled upon the floor. He drank and drank again; 
then he cocked up his little head and boldly said, 
"Where's that cat that was chasing me yesterday?" 

Dr. Bowers, who writes so entertainingly upon 
medical and physiological subjects says, satirically, 
that if one must drink alcohol, the only way to drink 
it is to consume an entire month's allowance in a 
night or two, get it over with, sober up and let the 
system, if it can, recover a tolerable degree of 
normality once more. "If you must get drunk," he 
says, "go into training for it, get into the very pink 
of condition — and afterward sleep off the effects, 
first eliminating all the alcohol possible through the 
pores in a Turkish bath, then sleep in the open air, 
or in an exceptionally well-ventilated chamber. 
Never get intoxicated when you are fatigued. Be 
fit in every way ; for in proportion as you are tired, 
a 'jag' will do harm — the more fatigued, the more 
harm. But perhaps the surest way to miss con- 
tracting a 'morning after' cough will be to save all 
your alcohol for the alcohol lamp." 

Speaking of the effect of alcohol on the nervous 
system Dr. Bowers writes, "It is the steady drinker 
who develops screaming nerves and the other 
symptoms of neuritis. Women, because of their 
highly organized nervous systems, and the tension 
under which many of them exist, are particularly 
liable to attacks of alcoholic neuritis — which goes to 
show that, whatever else he may or may not do, 
King Alcohol gives women their rights — perhaps 
even more than their legitimate share of them. A 
very simple and highly effective method of caring 
for this form of neuritis, provided the nerves haven't 
got the habit, is to stop drinking." 



ALCOHOL 419 

Alcohol is an anesthetic of considerable power, 
and under its influence one feels less keenly, or not 
at all, physical or mental insults. The use of large 
quantities leads to a deep torpid sleep which 
eventually passes into total unconsciousness, re- 
sembling the condition in chloroform anaesthesia. 
Alcohol anaesthesia lasts much longer than that of 
chloroform and ether. It is said that persons rarely 
or never recover from alcoholic stupor if uncon- 
sciousness lasts longer than 10 to 12 hours after the 
drinking bout, death being due to failure of the 
respiration. 

Alcohol under certain conditions acts as a mild 
hypnotic. A comparatively small quantity of beer 
or spirits and water taken before retiring often 
operates to secure quiet and refreshing sleep. With 
some persons, however, such a use of alcohol tends 
to give intense sleep for a contracted period, fol- 
lowed by positive wakefulness. 

Stiles, discussing the use of alcohol in his work on 
Nutritional Physiology, aptly and forcefully says, 
"The hygienic ideal to be striven for is a robustness 
of life which shall make alcohol superfluous as relish, 
food or drug and a cheerful, active mind which 
needs no artificial aid to keep it hopeful and sympa- 
thetic. The attainment may not be an easy task. 
Grief, worry and overwork may be added to an 
original depression of temperament, but the use of 
alcohol is never more unsafe than when sorrows are 
the excuse, and never so selfish and cowardly as 
when the motive is to shun responsibilities that 
ought to be faced. Men do not often see the sinister 
suggestion in the high spirits of one who has for- 
gotten his cares for an evening by the most moderate 
indulgence. They fail to see that the banishment 



EFFECT OF ALCOHOL UPON HUMAN EFFICIENCY 



NATURE 

OF 

TEST 


APPARATUS 
USED 


NOTES 

REGARDING 

TESTS 


Index of 

Average 

Capability 

Determined 

during 
Abstinence 
from Alcohol 
Recorded as 


Index of 

the same Men's 

Capability 

after 
Moderate 
Use of 
Alcohol 


Decreased 
Efficiency 

due to the 
Moderate Use 

of Alcohol 

Percentage 


A. — Capacity for Work 
and Physical 
Endurance. 


C Mosso 

I Ergograph. 

2 (Schnyder 
I Ergograph. 


( Alcohol administered, 1 
1 as glass of Bordeaux > 
( Wine after meals. ) 

Two glasses of Beer 
for ten (10) days. 


100 
100 


92 to 92.4 
91.4 


7.6 to 8 
8.6 


B. — Writing Balance. 
Speed and Accuracy. 


Graphical Time 

and 
Writing Balance. 
— Kraepelin — 


Alcohol same as "A." 
As Tests became more 
complex and required 
more intelligence, the 
use of Alcohol showed 
a lowering of Speed 
and Efficiency. 


100 


93 to 94.4 


5.6 to 7 


C. — Co-ordination Test 
with flash of Light, 
Sound Gongs and 


Chronometer 

Recording 

Time Intervals. 


Alcohol same as "A." 
The more difficult the 
Test, the more pro- 








Snap Switches. 




lessened Efficiency due 
to use of Alcohol. 








D. — Accountant Test. 
Speed in Adding 
Columns of 
Figures. 


Stop Watch 
and Inspection. 


Alcohol administered 
as one pint of Light 
Beer. Test kept up 
for two weeks. 


100 


96.9 
(After 1 Day) 

84.7 
(After 2 Weeks) 


8.1 

(After 1 Day) 

15.3 

(After 2 Weeks) 


E. — Typesetter Test. • 
(Composition 
Work) 


Stop Watch 

and Inspection. 

— Aschaffenburg — 


Moderate Drinks same 


100 


91.3 


8.7 


F. — Memory Tests. 


Accuracy Tested 

by 

Positive Examination. 


Moderate Alcoholic 
Drink each morning. 


100 


93.8 


6.2 


G.— Memory Tests. 


Dr. Vogt, 

Christian;.-,, 
University Method. 


Half Pint of Beer con- 
taining 4% Alcohol. 


100 


82 


18 




When system became 
used to Alcohol. 


100 


93 to 95 


5 to 7 




Moderate drink on 
empty stomach before 
Breakfast. 


100 


81 


69 


H. — Association of Ideas. 


Positive 
Examination. 


After evening's "Night 
Cap" Moderate Drink. 


100 


73 


27 


I.— Vision. 


Reading Signs 

Varying 
Distances. 


Alcohol administered 
as Pint of Beer. The 
effect of one drink did 
not wear off until 4 or 
5 hours had elapsed. 


100 


66.7 


33.3 


J.— Complex Co-ordina- 
tion Test for Time 
and Accuracy of 
Color. 


Colored Flags 

Electric Push Buttons 

with 

recording device. 

— Kraepelin — 


Alcohol administered 
as Glass of Wine after 
Meals. Efficiency fig- 
ures are given for 
speed. Errors greatly 
increased with use of 
Alcohol. 


100 


87 to 94 


6 to 18 


K.— Sense of Touch and 
Muscular Sense. 


Three Point and 

Dial Machine. 

—Ridge- 


Fourteen experiments 
on five persons. Also 
tests Judgment and 
Power of Perception. 


100 


86 


65 


L. — Accuracy in Type- 
writing. 


Stop Watch 

and Positive 

Examination. 

— Heidelburg — 


Alcohol administered as 
1 quart of Beer. 


100 


87.5 


12.5 


M. — Accurate Shooting. 
Quick Firing. 


Target and 

Inspection. 

— Mernetsch — 


80 shots in 30 seconds. 
Swedish Army Tests. 
Moderate Alcoholic 


100 


12.5 


87.5 


N.— Shooting 
Endurance. 


Target and 

Inspection. 

— Mernetsch — 

Shooting for Points. 


Firing until exhausted. 
Swedish Army Tests. 
Moderate Alcoholic 
Doses. 


100 


77.2 


22.8 


O. — Attention. 


Dots Moving Past 

Opening at 
Determined Rate. 
— McDougall — 


Alcohol administered as 
8 ounces of Whiskey. 


100 


. 


38 



The above tests demonstrate that the impressions on the mind during alcoholic days are not as permanent 
as on days of total abstinence. Alcohol taken on an empty stomach is extremely powerful in its action; 
taken before breakfast it is deadly if one hopes to perform efficient mental work. The more complex the 
psychological function, the more is it detrimentally affected by the use of Alcohol. The human system tends 
to gradually adjust itself to the persistent moderate use of Alcohol, but the efficiency of the individual, physio- 
logically and psychologically is less than that of the same person adjusted to the plane of abstinence. The 
effect of Alcohol administered pathologically will be pronounced upon an abstainer, but probably has little 
effect and therefore has low medicinal value to a steady, though very moderate, drinker. Moderate drinks of 
Alcohol lower one's speed of thinking and muscular action, lessen accuracy of action, mar judgment, tend to 
deaden memory, reduce vision and lower power of endurance and capacity for performing work. 



420 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

of sense of pressing duties is the very characteristic 
of the drunkard. When developed to a logical ex- 
treme it makes him indifferent to every obligation 
of conscience and love." 

Effect of Alcohol on Endurance 

Prof. A. Von Bunge, of Basel, Switzerland, has 
found, by repeated experiments with soldiers, that 
the regiments which were not supplied with alcohol, 
marched further and were in better condition at the 
end of the day than others to whom it had been 
given. Prof. Durig's experiments in climbing Mt. 
Bilkencrat (altitude 8,000 ft.) show that less work 
is performed with alcohol than without it. The 
Swiss scientist climbed with and without alcohol and 
found by carefully adjusted instruments that after 
drinking two glasses of beer he expended 15 per 
cent, more energy but took 21.7 per cent, more time 
to reach the top of the mountain. He was more 
prodigal in regard to the expenditure of his forces 
when under the effects of alcohol but his energy 
was wastefully applied and inefficiently consumed. 

Muller, of Stuttgart, says that the higher the 
climber goes, the less alcohol he should take. The 
German and Austrian Alpine Union have taken an 
official and unreserved stand that alcohol and moun- 
tain climbing have nothing in common. One of their 
rules reads, "Avoid alcohol both on the eve of 
setting forth and on the tour itself." 

Scientific Study of the Effect of Alcohol on the Human 
Machine 

Rudin made tests to determine how long the 
intellectual abilities continue to be depressed after 
the immediate toxic effects of alcohol have had time 
to pass off. His experiments showed that the effect 



o 



w 






..- 



w 



u. 



ALCOHOL 421 

of a single dose of alcohol taken in the evening per- 
sisted until the morning and noon of the next day. 
Kiirz said that after taking alcohol for 12 days he 
experienced decided diminution of calculating and 
study abilities which did not wear off entirely until 
the fifth day of his abstinence period. A single 
large dose of alcohol had after effects which marred 
his work for 24 hours and sometimes longer. 

Dr. Edwin F. Bowers has said, "Studies in exact 
science made under the strictest conditions, indicate 
that alcohol depresses, anaesthetizes and narcotizes 
and that its first effects on the nerves are to diminish 
acuteness and pervert activity. Sending the blood 
to the head where it surges through the brain with 
increased velocity is not increased vigor but in- 
creased irritation which comes just before anaes- 
thesia and diminution of power. The drinker de- 
ludes himself for he only thinks he is thinking. His 
very first drink has produced a definite measurable 
degree of intoxication — experts say that a little 
drink will set you back about 7 per cent, in muscular 
endurance and about 15 per cent, in your ability to 
remember things." 

The accompanying table has been prepared from 
exhaustive tests made in various parts of the world, 
by recognized experts and unbiased scientists, to 
show the effect of the moderate use of alcohol upon 
the efficiency of the average healthy human machine. 
To determine the index of 100, the men who were 
later given alcohol were generally subjected to tests 
under a condition of total abstinence, of sufficient 
duration so that their average capability could be 
scientifically determined after they became familiar 
with the tests and were in harmony with their en- 
vironment. The tests with alcohol were generally 



422 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



conducted with the same subjects immediately fol- 
lowing the total abstinence tests. A large number 
of subjects were usually chosen for each test and 
the average results or the range of the results ob- 
tained are herewith recorded. 

Kraepelin, whose tests with alcohol at Heidel- 
berg and Munchen were epoch-making, has said 
that fatigue reduced accuracy in typewriting 12.5 
per cent, but a quart of beer would reduce the 

Effect of Alcohol on Memory 



*#*■ °*- } 
*&&&~* 




%t*?3 



%*&• 







I 2 3 * 5 6|7 8 9 IO II 12 IS I* 13 16 17 IS ) 19 20 21 22 23 24 ZS-26 27 

!non-alcohouic alcoholic days | non-alcoholic alco. 

j DAYS j DAYS JOAY5 

SCALE* FOR DAYS OF TEST 

Fig. 25 

efficiency of one's work as much as the condition of 
physical fatigue. He has also said that during a 
period of entire abstinence he learned to memorize 
100 figures after 40 repetitions, but after taking 
alcohol moderately he could only memorize 60 
figures after 60 repetitions. 

Experiments conducted in the Kraepelin Labora- 
tory at the University of Heidelberg, by Prof. 
Smith, have been graphically plotted to show the 



ALCOHOL 423 

effect of time and accumulative alcoholic drinking 
upon various mental processes. The accompanying 
chart gives the results of some experiments with 
memory. For half an hour each day, time was given 
to memorizing as many numbers as possible. Days 
1 to 6 and 19 to 25 inclusive are abstinent days, 
and days 7 to 18 and 26 to 27 are alcoholic days. On 
days 5 and 6 a temporary illness caused a decrease 
in the amount of work done. Alcohol was taken in 
the evening in an amount equivalent to l 1 ^ to 3 
pints of 5 per cent, beer, so the work of memorizing 
was done 8 to 10 hours after taking alcohol. 

Other experiments were conducted by Prof. 
Smith to test the effect of alcohol on such habitual 
association of ideas as are involved in adding figures. 
The conditions of the experiments were similar to 
those of the memorizing experiments. Ability to 
add was markedly impaired, being about 35 per 
cent, at the end of the twelfth alcoholic day. Both 
the memorizing and adding tests showed good re- 
sults on the first alcoholic days but the accumulative 
detrimental effect of alcohol was soon in evidence 
and at the end of the twelfth alcoholic day the 
record of performances was extremely low and 
tending still further downward. In each test the 
first day's abstinence gave an immediate improved 
showing and the gain to normal was accomplished 
in a few days, to be promptly lost when the use 
of alcohol was renewed. 

Unfortunately we are not informed whether the 
experiments herein described were made on persons 
accustomed or unaccustomed to the use of spirituous 
drinks and it is well known that subjects who are 
habitual users of alcohol show results in such experi- 
ments much less unfavorable to drink than do ab- 



424 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

stainers. We would not seek to determine the 
injury from using tobacco simply by setting per- 
sons wholly unaccustomed to it to the task of smok- 
ing cigars. It is undoubtedly a fact that the human 
body can become, to a certain limited degree, 
tolerant to the injurious effects of a poison 
habitually taken, but the plane of equilibrium that 
is apparently established is apt to be, both mentally 
and physically, below that which would be realized 
and maintained if the body was normally fed and 
well nurtured with nature's wholesome non-poison- 
ous products. If two persons, one temperate and 
95 per cent, efficient, and the other a heavy, steady 
drinker, 85 per cent, efficient, were subjected to 
tests to determine the effect of moderate doses of 
alcohol upon their work (both muscular and 
mental) , one would expect to see the highly efficient 
man, unused to alcohol, show a much greater falling 
off in efficiency during the period that alcohol was 
used, than the regular consumer whose system had 
established a condition of tolerance — although on 
a level below that of the abstainer functioning 
normally: 

Efficiency Lessened 

Average after use Efficiency due 

Subject Habits Efficiency of alcohol to experiment 

A Abstainer 95 80 15 

B Drinker 85 85 

Notwithstanding the lack of scientific thorough- 
ness noticeable in most alcohol experiments, such 
investigations have great value ; they clearly suggest 
the line of truth and therefore should prove helpful 
in the regulation of every-day habits. 

Quensel has said that such experiments have 
clearly proved that work and drink do not go to- 
gether, especially when the work demands alertness, 



ALCOHOL 



425 



attention, exactness and industry, but this is no 
more than is taught by every-day experience and 
common sense. These investigations, it has also 
been said, prove that "alcohol reduces the ability to 
carry on mental work logically," but as Koren has 
written, this conclusion "is also something coming 
within the purview of ordinary observation." 

Alcohol and Athletics 

Alcohol and athletics do not go together. The 
use of alcohol to-day by a college athlete, when in 
training, would be considered by his fellows as noth- 
ing short of insanity or treason. More than half of 
the players in professional baseball abstain from all 
alcoholic beverages, although no class of men are 
subjected to greater temptation. Connie Mack, 
Manager of the Philadelphia Athletics — the world's 
championship winner of 1910-1911 and 1913 — said, 
"Alcohol is practically eliminated from baseball. A 



<0 

e>k£30 
<S25 

si 



MODERATE DRINKERS AND ABSTAINERS 
IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. 



15 

Z 

- 10 



I 







1 






..... .., 


1 


1 








V NC 


)TE — rrcJM uaia <~urnriLLL> bt 

L [*l\CM Fill 1 FPTOKI-A RPCODn OF_ 








4^ 


30 F 


>LAYE 


*SOF 


EACf 


1CLA 


SS. 








*qj 


% 




















s 


^ 
















& 














-^s 












p? 




^^ 





















to 
o 

0> 



o 



<o 
o 



O 
o> 



O — oi ro n 
O 0> O 0> o 
SCALE FOR YEARS. SHOWING NUMBER oFpLAYERs" 

OUT OF ORIGINAL THIRTY OF EACH CLASS 
REMAINING IN LEAGUES AS YEAR FOLLOWS YEAR. 
Fig. 26 



426 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

big league player has to be in trim day in and day 
out or he is sent to the minors. It's the survival of 
the fittest." 

The diagram on page 425 has been prepared, from 
figures compiled by Hugh Fullerton one of the 
leading baseball writers of the country, to show the 
survival of the non-alcoholic among the players of 
the National Game. 

It is interesting to consider, comparatively, the 
careers of four great American pitchers who rose 
to prominence about the same time — Waddell, 
Raymond, Mathewson and Plank. The first two 
succumbed to alcoholism and dissipation while the 
latter two have always practiced sobriety. Waddell 
was one of the most talented men in baseball and in 
his prime was unbeatable. Raymond had wonder- 
ful physical ability but even a guardian escort, a hu- 
man shadow in constant attendance, could not keep 
him going straight when off the diamond. Both 
are dead, ensnared and defeated by alcohol. Matty 
and Plank are still good and when their arms fail, 
their heads will carry them through to many vic- 
tories and ultimately, in all probability, to executive 
leadership. 

In the summer of 1908 a long distance champion- 
ship walking match was held at Kiel, Germany, 
with 83 contestants, of whom 29 per cent, were ab- 
stainers and 71 per cent, non-abstainers. No 
athlete used alcoholic drinks immediately before or 
during the 62 mile walk. The first four winners 
were abstainers, and of the first ten prize-winners, 
60 per cent, were abstainers ; two of the remaining 
first ten (20 per cent.), though not general ab- 
stainers, had lived abstinent for months while in 
training for the event. The significance of the re- 



ALCOHOL 427 

suits consisted less in the winning of the abstainers 
than in the fact that 30 out of the 59 non-abstainers 
fell out by the way, whereas, of the 24 abstainers 
only two fell out. Of the 32 contestants who failed 
to reach the goal, 94 per cent, were non-abstainers 
and only 6 per cent, abstainers. 

Brain Most Affected by Alcohol 

Physiological scientists discoursing on the effect 
of alcohol upon the human system, generally picture 
its deleterious action upon the stomach and the 
liver, but after all, it is the brain that is affected the 
most and the brain and nervous processes that suffer 
and are impaired the most, by the persistent or 
excessive use of alcohol. It has been said that the 
action induced by alcohol in the brain is of the 
nature of a progressive paralysis, beginning with 
the highest level and its most delicate functions and 
spreading gradually down through the lower. 
Moral qualities and the higher processes of intelli- 
gence are, therefore, first invaded. Sully-Prud- 
homme has said, "All in all, my opinion as to alcohol 
in all its forms is, that it is fitted, thanks to the 
devastation it brings about in the nervous system, to 
animalize people in all grades of society and sooner 
or later, to annihilate the superiority which man has 
slowly acquired over the anthropoid ape." 

Vance Thompson says alcohol first attacks "those 
qualities so painfully acquired in the long years of 
evolution. It is the most delicate part of the mental 
machinery that is first impaired — that which has 
been most recently and fragilely built up in the 
evolution of character," and again he says, "You 
can drink and be sober on the physical level, but 
you cannot drink and be good, and you cannot drink 



428 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

and be wise." But can one drink alcohol and be 
strictly sober on the physical level? If by "sober" 
we mean a physical condition where we are not 
detrimentally influenced by spirituous drinks, and 
if by "physical" level we refer to the activities of 
the physical body, excluding the moral judgments 
and higher intellectual mental functions, we are still 
forced to admit, as a result of unbiased research 
work, that alcohol does affect the physical and auto- 
matic, also elemental mentally controlled functions 
of the body as well as the morals and the higher in- 
tellectual mental processes. To be sober, one must 
be normally efficient and naturally self-controlled 
and self-possessed. Alcohol most assuredly does 
affect a man's complete nervous system, his muscles, 
his strength and endurance, and it also detri- 
mentally influences all the parts of his wonderful 
brain, his emotions, imagination, higher intellectual 
powers and his moral qualities. It may be that the 
first impairment, as Thompson says, is moral, but 
the physical deterioration is promptly in evidence, 
and if every man who takes alcohol is as he says, 
"drunk at the top," we can with equal truth say he 
is, to a certain degree, "drunk" or poisoned through- 
out. Prof. Sikovsky, of Petrograd, has said, 
"Alcohol diminishes the rapidity of thought, makes 
the imagination and power of reflection common- 
place and deprived of originality, acts upon fine and 
complex sensations by transforming them into 
coarse and elemental ones and upsets habits of work 
and perserverance," and Dr. Robert Jones asserts 
that, "Alcohol perverts the moral nature, affects the 
judgment and impairs the memory; it moreover 
especially affects the motor system and creates an 
enormous loss to the community through destroy- 



ALCOHOL 429 

ing the productiveness of skilled craftsmen." 
Alcohol has a strange affinity for all nerve matter 
and the brain is the headquarters of the nervous 
system. If this most sensitive nerve matter is 
poisoned, the generator, motors and all service wires 
are affected, the resistance to current flow increased 
and the efficiency of generation, transformation, 
transmission and distribution lessened. "You 
shouldn't be too hard upon a man who drinks," 
said Oliver Herford, "it is only a petty larceny he 
is guilty of anyway." 

"O that men should put an enemy in 

their mouths to steal away their brains ! 
That we should with joy, pleasure, revel and 
applause, transform ourselves into beasts!" 

— Shakespeare. 

Prof. E. H. Starling said, "In the animal king- 
dom we find that there are two main factors which 
characterize rise in type and determine survival. 
These are control and co-ordination." Alcohol 
tends to weaken both and rob man of his birthright. 

Poise and Dignity Affected by Alcohol 

Alcohol under certain conditions may increase 
sociability, for it is apt to cause loss of self-con- 
sciousness; it attacks the inhibitory centers and is 
the foe to reticence and reserve. It tends to lower 
the esthetic and intellectual ideal and it positively 
does not inspire the best wit and humor. Listeners 
influenced by the same narcotic agent as the 
speakers are "vinously exalted" and lose the sense 
of balance, proportion, faculty of discrimination 
and, at times, their normally accepted standard 
of propriety. Such a man may be applauded vigor- 



430 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

ously, be keyed up to an amazing degree of en- 
thusiasm and laugh uproariously at jokes that his 
neighbor — with glass turned down — rightfully 
thinks inane, stupid and possibly in bad taste. 
Alcohol tends to make a man mistake words for 
thoughts ; it usually makes a poor speaker for an in- 
telligent audience, and a lenient or even enthusiastic 
audience for a poor speaker. 

Alcohol has ruined the future of many a man 
holding a position of confidence and trust, for it un- 
locks the door of the mind's secret chambers, 
eliminates the mental guardian and encourages 
babbling. No man can keep personal or busisess 
secrets perpetually if he drink alcohol to excess and 
is in the company of capable "pumpers." The 
papers to-day (April, 1916) tell of a man who com- 
mitted homicide in New York nine years ago, 
escaped and became a total abstainer from alcohol. 
Yesterday he became intoxicated, boasted of his 
exploits while under the tongue-loosening effects of 
alcohol, and to-day he is in jail. He could keep his 
secret for nine years sober, but he couldn't guard it 
for many hours when drunk. 

The drinking of alcohol for sociability and 
pleasurableness has been aptly termed "drugging 
for delectation," but there is something wrong with 
a man whose nervous system needs deadening be- 
fore he can feel happy and in harmony with life 
and his fellows. No man should be content with 
any measure of health that does not insure happi- 
ness and sociability without drugs and the aid of a 
narcotic. Solomon said, "Give wine to him that is 
ready to perish that he may drink and forget his 
misery." Alcohol is an intellectual depressant; it 
does not give courage to meet failure and overcome 



ALCOHOL 431 

adversity, but it deadens consciousness and ob- 
literates facts from the mind ; the cause remains and 
the misery returns, intensified by mental and 
nervous depression as the reflex action of drugs — 
inspired forgetfulness. Alcohol tends to befog the 
mind, to lessen true mental vision and warp one's 
sense of proportion. It clouds the imagination and 
the perceptions become dulled and blunt by the 
"mist of intoxication." 

Medicinal Use of Alcohol 

Metzer has said that "Alcohol in health is mostly 
a curse, and in sickness mostly a blessing." To a 
limited extent alcohol administered in very small 
quantities may act as a food or substitute for non- 
nitrogenous foods. Alcohol is absorbed into the 
circulatory system direct from the stomach and its 
fattening effects in moderate drinking are well 
known. It is most probable, however, that a very 
small dose of alcohol on an empty stomach has an 
appetizing effect and this is one of its merits in 
illness, although it must be borne in mind that 
alcohol requires no digestion and throws no work 
upon the digestive glands, and a small quantity can, 
therefore, be tolerated and absorbed when many 
other foods would remain undigested. Dr. Carroll 
Smith, of Boston, is a firm believer in the use of 
alcohol medicinally. He decries the modern crusade 
which sees only vice in things, which used in modera- 
tion and pathologically, may possess much virtue. 
"Much of the crusade against the use of alcohol in 
every disease is due in the one case to the spirit of 
the iconoclast, and in the other to the want of ex- 
perience, while still other conscientious physicians 
seem to move more readily in the line of the least 



432 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



resistance." The presidents of the State Medical 
Societies and Faculties of our Medical Colleges 
were recently addressed in regard to their opinion 
of Alcohol and almost without exception they 
seemed to agree that alcohol is useful medicinally. 
The use of alcohol is fraught with so much danger, 
however, that even in illness it is not being used as 
much as formerly, but its use pathologically is still 
great and no law should, directly or indirectly, pro- 
hibit its use in the home and by people of mature 
age. 

TOTAL EXPENDITURES IN ALCOHOL AND 
MILK IN SEVEN LONDON HOSPITALS. 
60.000 



ft: 

5° 
1° 

ub 



55,000 

50,000 

45.000 

40,000 

35,000 

30,000 

25,000 

20,000 

15,000 

10,000 

5,000 







































.vfe 












y 






































/°\. 
















^&c 














■^<<u 






























s 



















1662 1872 1882 1692 1902 
SCALE FOR YEARS. 

Fig. 27 



1912 



Medical authorities unanimously agree that the 
use of alcohol predisposes the user to diseases of 
the kidneys, liver and heart; it exerts an injurious 
influence upon the nervous system and tissue vitality 
as a whole. "Liver disorders," said Dr. J. M. 
Whyte, "are probably in all cases prejudicially in- 
fluenced by alcoholic beverages. In kidney diseases 



ALCOHOL 



433 



alcohol should be withheld, for alcohol in moderate 
quantities irritates the kidneys." 

The excessive, habitual previous use of alcohol 
positively lessens the chance of recovery in a case of 
pneumonia and it is one of the prime causes of 
arteriosclerosis — hardening of the arteries — a dis- 
ease which makes a young man prematurely old. 

Horsley and Sturge have compiled some interest- 
ing figures to show the pronounced decline in the 

EXPENDITURE IN ALCOHOL (CENTS PER PATIENT) 
LONDON METROPOLITAN FEVER HOSPITALS. 

*H40 

uj Z 
Q-^ 35 

t< 30 
Zw 

31*25 

2£ 2 o 

UJ D 

az 

is 

ur- 
°-t 
x £ 



15 
10 



■ \ 



1895 1899 1903 1907 1911 
SCALE FOR YEARS. 

Fig. 28 



1914 



consumption of alcohol in British hospitals during 
the past half century, and with the reduction in 
the use of alcohol, the increased consumption of 
Milk is most pronounced. The accompanying dia- 
grams show graphically the Total Annual Expendi- 
ture on Alcohol and Milk during certain years, as 
indicated, in seven leading London hospitals — the 
average number of beds occupied being 2,336, and 
this number held constant, i. e., within four per 
cent. 



434 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The annual expenditure for alcoholic liquors, per 
patient, in the Massachusetts General Hospital was 
reduced 71 per cent, during the decade ending 1906, 
and during the same period the consumption of 
drugs in general decreased 45 per cent. In 1897 
the Hospital expended 46 cents per patient for 
alcohol, and in 1906 this expenditure had been re- 
duced to 13 cents. Dr. Cabot has said, "It indicates 
a rapid and striking change on the part of the physi- 
cians or the general staff since it became known that 
alcohol is not a stimulant but a narcotic." 

Of late years the use of Alcohol in the treatment 
of fever has been greatly reduced, and the accom- 
panying diagram shows graphically the expenditure 
on alcoholic beverages, per patient, in the London 
Metropolitan Fever Hospitals during the period 
1895-1914. 

A pronounced revolution has also taken place 
during the past few decades, in the use of alcohol 
for the treatment of insanity. The following statis- 
tics from the Asylum's Committee of the County of 
London are of interest: 



Number of persons, 




1889 
8,107 


1905-1906 
19,457 


Consumption of Spirits — gal. 
" Wine 


1,066 
836 


218 
33 


" Beer 


-gal. 


255,486 


1,282 


Total consumption of 
Alcoholic Beverages- 


257,388 


1,533 


Average consumption 






per person: 

Spirits — gal. 
Wine 




.131 
.103 


.011 
.002 


Beer 




31.514 


.065 



Total " 31.748 .078 



ALCOHOL 435 

Much Insanity Caused by Alcohol 

The Lancet of May, 1889, said, "During the 
years 1861-5 there entered the Asylums of France 
14,983 insane persons. In the same space of time 
twenty years later there entered more than 57,000." 
Dr. Serieux investigating into causes found that 
"of the relapsed cases 78 per cent, were drinkers, 
while of the violent lunatics 88 per cent, were 
drinkers." In 1903, Sir T. Clouston of the British 
Morningside Hospital said, "This year no less than 
42.3 per cent, of all our men and 18 per cent, of our 
women — much the largest proportion we have ever 
experienced — had excess in alcohol assigned as the 
cause of their insanity. In the five years 1873-7; 
the percentage of alcohol cases was only 18.5 among 
the men and 10.4 among the women admissions,'" 
and he added, "It is certain that for every man in 
whom excessive drinking causes absolute insanity 
there are twenty in whom it injures the brain, blunts 
the moral sense and lessens the capacity for work in 
lesser degrees. " 

In the United States it is estimated by different 
authorities that on the average from 20 to 30 per 
cent, of all insane patients admitted to asylums each 
year, owe their condition wholly or partly to alcohol, 
and that it costs $5,332,000 every year to care for 
the American alcoholic insane. In the New York 
State Hospitals in 1910, alcoholic habits were re- 
ported in 60 per cent, of the men and 20 per cent. 
of the women among the 5,245 patients admitted for 
the first time, from whom positive statements con- 
cerning the use of alcohol were secured. Alcoholic 
insanity, as such, appeared in 15.7 per cent, of the 
men and in 3.9 per cent, of the women. In Norris- 
town, Pa., State Hospital for the Insane, Dr. Mc- 



436 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Kinness tells us that of 520 new male patients in 
two years, alcoholism was a factor in 46 per cent, of 
the cases. Stoddard says, "Taking statistics from 
various countries it would appear that at a con- 
servative estimate about one case in every four of 
insanity (25 per cent.) is chargeable directly or in- 
directly to drink.'' 

Doctor Emil Muensterberg of Germany, in 
"Alcoholism and Poor Relief," with reference to 
Alcoholism and Insanity and the Breaking up of 
Homes, says: 

"The consumption of alcohol in Germany is exceptionally 
great. Fifty thousand insane are in German asylums yearly 
whose sickness can be traced back to alcohol. Out of years- 
long experience I can say that in almost no case is the break- 
up of families due to any other cause than to drink and 
looseness." 

Effect of Alcohol on Digestion 

Alcohol when present in considerable quantity 
has, as is well known, a hardening or coagulating 
(precipitating) effect upon a great many tissues 
and substances. Its use as a hardening and preserv- 
ing agent is well known. When present in the 
normal stomach in the proportion of 10 per cent, or 
more, it causes delay in peptic digestion and 
digestion is retarded as the percentage of alcohol is 
increased. The accompanying diagram and table 
prepared from data obtained from the interesting 
investigation of Sir William Roberts show that 
Sherry Wine is more injurious than spirits in its im- 
pediment to natural digestive processes. 

A small quantity of alcohol may be used medici- 
nally to encourage and stimulate the flow of gastric 
digestive juices; but if such flow is normal and the 



ALCOHOL 



437 



stomach healthy, it is evident that all alcoholic 
liquors have a tendency to delay digestive pro- 
cesses. The retarding effect of malt liquors is, as 
with wine, altogether out of proportion to their 



o 



DIAGRAM TO SHOW THE RETARDING 
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON DIGESTION 
300 



XjUJ 250 

5^225 

?oi200 
tuOS 

£g< too 

3B| 

w»5 



175 
150 



75 
50 
25 





BRAN 
WHISI 
OR Gl 


DY — / 








SHERRY—/ 
WINE / 


<Y / 


/ 


^ 




N // 


,. ^burton 










^ 


ALE 






»••' 


/ ' si 








*•■** 


' >> l J OK 1 




/ s 


A* 


VVINE _ 


^^LAGER 


/ 


/ 




__ «~~"T " 


•""" 


BEER 




- 



















NOTE 








COMPILED FROM DATA PREPARED FRO 
" INVESTIGATION OF SIR WILLIAM ROE 


M THE 
ERTS." 









5 10 20 30 40 50 60 

SCALE FOR PROPORTION IN PERCENTAGE 
OF THE ALCOHOLIC DRINKS CONTAINED 
IN THE DIGESTIVE MIXTURE. 

Fig. 29 



A TABLE SHOWING THE RETARDING EFFECT OF 
ALCOHOL UPON DIGESTION. 

(INVESTIGATION OF SIR WILLIAM ROBERTS.) 


PROPORTION OF THE 
ALCOHOLIC DRINK 
CONTAINED IN THE 
DIGESTIVE MIXTURE 


BRANDY 

WHISKY 

OR 

GIN 


SHERRY 

wine! 


PORT 
WINE 


BURTON 
ALE 


LAGER 
BEER 


5 Per Cent 


MINUTES 

100 


MINUTES 

115 


MINUTES 

100 


MINUTES 

108 


MINUTES 

100 


10 « u 


115 


150 


115 


115 


100 


15 u " 


125 


200 


150 


125 


108 


20 * u 


135 


300 


180 


140 


115 


30 u ° 


180 


Embarrassed 


200 


165 


130 


40 u - u 


300 


None 


Embarrassed 


200 


140 


60 " u 


Embarrassed 


None 


None 


Embarrassed 


180 



Fig. 30 



438 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

alcoholic content. Roberts also proves that tea and 
coffee retarded gastric digestion and summed up 
his research with the statement that "with the single 
and trifling exception of carbonated water I found 
that none of the various accessories which we use 
with food, aided peptic digestion." 

As is well known alcohol is a preservative and, 
therefore, when present in quantity in any re- 
ceptacle, including the human stomach, resists 
change of vegetable or animal matter and chemical 
changes are necessary if digestion is to take place. 

Dr. Chittenden of Yale has found that when the 
percentage of alcohol in the digestive mixture is as 
low as 2 per cent, in the healthy stomach there is 
sometimes a slight acceleration of the rate of diges- 
tion, but as the percentage of alcohol is raised, 
retardation or inhibition becomes more noticeable, 
although ordinarily it is not very pronounced until 
the digestive mixture contains 5 to 10 per cent, of 
absolute alcohol. 

Alcohol as a Cure for Colds 

Alcohol is used with some success to "break up" 
incipient colds. Stiles says that "its influence upon 
the distribution of the blood is not unlike that of 
quinine. It causes a flushing of the skin, accom- 
panied by the subjective impression of warmth." A 
person taking alcohol for a cold should do so after 
and not during exposure and great care should be 
taken not to catch more cold as the body is weakened 
by the rush of blood to the skin, a sign that heat 
and energy is passing from the body into its sur- 
roundings. The use of alcohol during exposure is 
unwise; the habitual use of alcohol to "ward off 
colds" is foolish for such a practice lessens bodilv 



ALCOHOL 439 

resistance. A hot lemonade with alcohol, followed 
by a long sleep, well wrapped up in bed, free from 
drafts and exposure will tend to "break up" a newly 
acquired cold, but care must be taken to have the 
pores of the skin normally closed and the vitality 
raised by food before subjecting the body once 
more to conditions favorable to the acquiring of 
more cold. Alcohol in such treatment should be 
considered as a powerful, weakening narcotic, and 
not as a pleasurable stimulant. Conformity to 
nature's laws would prevent the phenomenon known 
as "catching cold." Colds are one of the curses of 
civilization with its indoor life, polluted air and 
artificial heat; people who live natural out-of-door 
lives, never catch cold. To prevent colds one should 
therefore breath deeply of good, pure air and when 
chilled breathe more deeply; open the boiler draft, 
liven up the internal fire, accelerate the blood flow 
and the threatening cold is vanquished. A little 
exercise, a brisk walk, a run, a hot bath, all act to 
throw off a forming cold, if care is taken not to 
stand inactive or in a draft after physical exertion 
and when the body is perspiring. 

Intoxication Analogous to Insanity 

Intoxication does not necessarily mean only 
obvious and palpable drunkenness. Dr. Hyslop 
has truly said, "From the very moment in which 
alcohol has disturbed the healthy exercise of the 
mental functions or has impaired the moral sense 
by unduly exciting the animal passions or has in 
any way unfitted a person for discharging his duties 
in the proper struggle for survival, from that 
moment has there been a guilt of intemperance." 
It has been said that intoxication epitomizes the 



440 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

whole history of insanity. The man who becomes 
dead drunk within the space of a few hours under- 
goes very much the same change as the man who 
becomes gradually insane, and he who keeps his 
association and motor senses slightly drugged all 
the time by "moderate" drinking is not entirely a 
"sane" man. He is constantly drunk to a slight 
degree and is, therefore, constantly insane to a 
slight degree. 

Alcohol Even in Moderation not Conducive to Health 

For many long years the moderate use of alcohol 
was considered with favor by the medical profession 
and insurance authorities. Anstie's standard or 
"Anstie's limit" was quoted and preached. The 
moderate drinker was held in high esteem and total 
abstinence was considered decidedly fanatical. Ac- 
cording to Anstie the correct quantity of alcohol per 
person per day could be represented by any one of 
the following: three ounces of spirits; two wine 
glasses of heavy port wine ; one pint of claret, cham- 
pagne or similar still or effervescent wine; three 
tumblers of heavy ale or porter; or four to five 
glasses of light ale or beer. We are now informed 
by the Medico- Actuary and Scientist that Anstie's 
limit belongs to the Dark Ages of Medical, physio- 
logical and psychological knowledge, and to a 
period of ignorance and indifference when, in the 
words of Bernard Shaw, "Society was organized to 
suit boozy people." 

Seventy-six years ago (1840) the management of 
a British Life Insurance Company received an 
application for a policy from a man who stated that 
he was a total abstainer from alcoholic drinks — a 
teetotaler. After consultation, the Directors of the 
Insurance Company decided that they would grant 



ALCOHOL 441 

the insurance requested, but only on the basis of a 
10 per cent, increase over the standard premium 
rates because, they ruled, "The applicant is of a 
thin and watery disposition and mentally cranked 
in that he repudiates the good creatures of God as 
found in alcoholic drinks." It is interesting to know 
that this Quaker abstainer, branded as fanatical 
and a bad "life risk" by the Medico- Actuaries of 
his time, lived to be 82. To-day all Life Insurance 
Companies prefer total abstainers to those who use 
alcoholic drinks even in moderation. The world's 
opinion of alcohol has certainly changed since the 
days of our grandfathers. 

American Life Insurance Companies' Compara- 
tive Mortality Statistics, covering 43 Companies 
for a period of 23 years, show the following inter- 
esting figures in regard to the users of alcohol : 

Death rate among insured lives generally 1 . 

Death rate among policy holders (moderate drinkers) 1.18 

Death rate among policy holders (with history of past 

intemperance) 1 . 50 

Death rate among policy holders (steady drinkers ac- 
cepted, however, as standard risks) 1 . 86 

Deaths among drinkers from B right's Disease, kidney 
trouble, degeneration of the arteries, pneumonia, etc., were 
far above the average. 

The New England Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany recently prepared the following table, based 
on figures taken from 180,000 insurance policies 
covering a period of 60 years : 

Expected mortality, 100 per cent. 

Actual mortality — moderate drinker, 125 " " 

temperate drinker, 84 " 

" rare drinker, 71 " 

total abstainer, 59 " " j 



442 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

A British Insurance Statistical Table, giving the 
record of 45 years' experience, shows : 

Expected mortality, 100 per cent. 

Actual mortality — non-abstainer, 91.27 " ** 
abstainer, 66.25 " " 

In other words, of 100,000 abstainers 33,750 
would still be living at the end of 45 years, while of 
100,000 drinkers but 8,730, or about one-fourth as 
many, would be alive at the end of that period. 

A diagram prepared by Sir Victor Horsley, 
Physician to Queen Victoria, compiled from insur- 
ance reports, shows that of 100,000 ordinary per- 
sons 30 years old, 44,000 reach the age of 70 years, 
while of 100,000 abstainers 30 years old, 55,000, or 
25 per cent, more, reach the age of 70 years. 

Alcohol Decreases Resistance to Disease 

Alcohol not only shortens life, but it mars the 
efficiency and earning power of the individual while 
he lives. It lowers the bodily tone and this is mani- 
fested both by increased liability to contract disease 
and by the greater severity of the disease. As 
Somers says, "Our resistance not only keeps off the 
enemy but defeats him if he has by any chance 
effected a landing." During the cholera epidemic 
of Glasgow, Adams found the death rate among 
drinkers 91.2 and among abstainers 19.2 per cent. 
Hoppe says that 92 per cent, of the inmates of 
the Sanatoria for Consumptives at Loslav were 
drinkers, and Bertillon and Vallows state that their 
investigations indicate that 33.33 per cent, of male 
consumptives were heavy drinkers, 40.17 per cent, 
moderate drinkers and 26.5 per cent, claimed tee- 
totalers, the percentage of drinkers to non-drinkers 



ALCOHOL 443 

being very much larger in consumptives than in the 
corresponding normal population. 

At the International Congress on Tuberculosis, 
which met in Paris in 1905, the following resolu- 
tion was passed, and has been confirmed at each 
Convention since, including Rome in 1913: "That 
in view of the close connection between Alcoholism 
and Tuberculosis, this Congress strongly emphasizes 
the importance of combining the fight against 
Tuberculosis with the struggle against Alcoholism." 
At the Henry Phipps Institute in Philadelphia, 
records were kept for several years on the relation 
between Alcoholic habits and the response to treat- 
ment for Tuberculosis. The following synopsis of 
these investigations is of interest: 



Temperate and 
Abstainers 
Per cent. 
No. of Patients benefitted by 


Alcoholic 
Per cent. 


treatment, 49 . 2 


29.5 


No. of Deaths, 9.9 


21.8 


No. of Patients not benefitted by 

treatment, 40 . 7 


48.5 



Drs. Osier and McCrea have prepared statistics 
to show that in pneumonia, the disease on the aver- 
age is much more likely to progress unfavorably if 
the sick person is an excessive or habitual user of 
alcohol. Their statistics show that 18.5 per cent, of 
pneumonia patients who were abstainers died from 
the disease ; 25 per cent, of those who were moderate 
drinkers and 52.8 per cent, of those who were im- 
moderate drinkers and positively alcoholic. 

The sickness and mortality record of the Leipzig 
Sick Benefit Clubs show that whereas the number of 
deaths in the general class can be represented as 



444 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

100, the proportional number of deaths in chronic 
alcoholics for each 100 in the general class is as 
follows : 



All Diseases, 


293 


Diseases Nervous System, 


267 


Respiratory System, 


667 


Circulatory System 


137 


Digestive System, 


267 


Wounds, 


300 



All men studied were in the prime of life. 

Dr. Welch, of Johns Hopkins University, has 
said, "In one way or another most of the organs 
and tissues of the body may become the seat of 
morbid changes chargeable to the poisonous action 
of alcohol." Dr. Lambert, of the Bellevue Hospital, 
New York, has reported the organic changes in 
alcoholic men and women — chronic drinkers — whose 
deaths occurred at the Hospital : 





Men 


Women 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Heart Disease, 


90 


90 


Hob-nailed Liver, 


48 


34 


Fatty degeneration of Liver, 


80 


74 



Chronic inflammation of Stomach, 50 50 



These studies also showed affections of the blood- 
vessels, lungs, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, nervous 
system, etc. Lambert has said that with some 
heavy drinkers "there is for years no apparent lesion 
and when some sudden strain on the organism oc- 
curs, its equilibrium is upset and the whole organism 
crumbles." 

Surgeons maintain that their work is hindered 
and hampered by the alcoholic habits of patients, for 
the healing of wounds is positively delayed by 



ALCOHOL 445 

alcohol. Sick Benefit Insurance bodies "fight shy" 
of the excessive or habitual users of alcohol. Sta- 
tistics from Leipzig, Germany, show that for every 
100 non-drinkers sick between the ages of 15 and 74 
there were 263 drinkers sick. Australian figures for 
leading Friendly Insurance and Sick Benefit So- 
cieties reported by Gouge are : 

Temperate Drinker 
Average number of weeks' sickness 

per member, 1.2 2.3 
Average number of weeks' sickness 

for each person ill, 6.45 10.91 

Mortality — expressed in percentage, .68 1.38 

In addition to physical illness and organic ail- 
ments, there is, of course, a larger number of 
alcoholics than abstainers constantly suffering from 
the effects of accidents. 

Mortality in Relation to Occupation 

Some interesting statistics have been prepared by 
the British Registrar- General to show the compara- 
tive mortality from various occupations. It is cer- 
tainly not due to chance and blind coincidence that 
for two periods a decade apart, the handlers of 
alcoholic beverages showed such high relative 
mortality : 





Years 


Years 


Occupation 


1890-1892 


1900-1902 


Gardeners, 


568 


527 


Teachers, 


571 


599 


Grocers, 


664 


670 


Doctors, 


957 


952 


Brewers, 


1,407 


1,324 


Inn Keepers and Inn 






Servants, 


1,665 


1,669 



446 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Comparing the employes of British Inns with all 
occupied males, we find that out of a given number 
in each group, among Inn and Saloon employes 

8 times as many die from Alcoholism, 

5.5 - " " " " Gout, 

1.3 " " " ** Diseases of Nervous System, 

1.8 " " " " " Suicide, 

2.5 " " " " " Consumption, 

as the average for all occupied males in every trade, 
profession and gainful pursuit. 

The Prudential Insurance Co. has prepared 
tables based on the records of 103,434 deaths of 
occupied men over 15 years of age in the Company's 
industrial experience during the period 1907-1910. 
The statistics tabulated show the proportion of 
deaths due to various diseases out of the total num- 
ber of deaths in each occupation. For example, out 
of 1,163 bartenders who died,78,or 6.7 per cent, died 
of alcoholism — as a prime cause, not as a contribu- 
tory factor. This "proportionate mortality " rate is 
of value in showing what are the causes of death 
operating in different occupations and at different 
periods of life. The average number of deaths due 
solely to alcoholism in 20 occupations was 1.5 per 
cent, and of the occupations recorded, it is interest- 
ing to note that saloon-keepers had 4.4 per cent, 
of such deaths, glass-workers, plumbers and masons 
1.9 per cent, and printers 1.6 per cent. Between the 
ages of 25 and 44, the percentage of deaths occur- 
ring in all occupations was 31.7; of saloon-keepers 
48 per cent, died in this age period, and of bar- 
tenders 72 per cent. 



ALCOHOL U7 

Mortality Due to Alcohol 

Dr. T. D. Crothers says, "The latest and most 
authentic statistics show that over 10 per cent, of 
all mortality is due to the abuse of alcohol, and fully 
20 per cent, of all disease is traceable to this cause ; 
also that over 50 per cent, of insanity, idiocy and 
pauperism spring from this source. All authorities 
agree that from 75 to 90 per cent, of all criminality 
is caused by the abuse of alcohol. These and other 
well authenticated facts indicate the necessity of a 
more exact medical study of alcohol and its effects 
and influences on society and the individual." 

Statistics show that the deaths from Alcoholism 
or acute alcoholic poisoning in the Federal registra- 
tion area of 18 states, in 1912, numbered 3,183, but 
only a very small percentage of the total number of 
deaths due to alcohol is officially attributed to 
alcohol, whose greatest work of destruction is per- 
formed in a more subtle and less spectacular way 
than by alcoholic delirium tremens. Alcohol taken 
habitually or to excess attacks the nerves, stomach, 
liver, kidneys and heart, and creates a condition 
favorable for diseases of the respiratory system — 
consumption, pneumonia, etc. ; it also tends to lower 
the body tone and its resistance to infection. It 
causes the condition of old age in a young man and 
a large percentage of the deaths attributed to the 
liver, kidneys and circulatory system have been 
caused by alcohol, and many other fatalities are in- 
directly induced by it. The statistics of the British 
Registrar- General indicate that during the year 
1903, 1,475 deaths of males and 1,075 deaths of 
females were returned as caused by alcoholism. 
Horsley and Sturge commenting on these reports, 



448 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

say "For obvious reasons, the number of deaths 
registered under this head are greatly under- 
estimated. The Doctor in attendance hands the 
death certificate to the nearest relative of the de- 
ceased and he is careful not to hurt the relative's 
feelings." In the same British Mortality Statistics 
3,916 deaths are attributed to cirrhosis of the liver, 
a disease known to be very often due to alcoholic in- 
dulgence. In Switzerland the introduction of the 
confidential death certificate immediately revealed 
the existence of an incredible amount of slow 
alcoholic poisoning among the people. 

E. B. Phelps, author of "The Mortality of 
Alcohol," estimates that 65,897 deaths occur in this 
country annually, in which alcohol is a causative 
or contributing factor. 

Inefficiency Caused by Alcohol 

Drunkenness is an abomination, a condition lower 
than that ever reached voluntarily by any beast. 
Immoderate or habitual drinking of alcohol, even if 
it does not lead to apparent drunkenness, neverthe- 
less intoxicates and is harmful to the system and 
antagonistic to mental and physical efficiency. It 
has been said that for every real and apparent 
drunkard there are fifty others suffering from the 
deleterious effects of alcohol. Temperance is a 
virtue. Abstinence in regard to some poisons may 
be a greater virtue, but temperance or abstinence in 
regard to the use of alcohol in any form is necessary 
for efficiency and maintained health. "Work and 
alcohol," said Quensel, "do not belong together, 
especially when work demands wide-awakeness, at- 
tention, exactness and endurance." 



ALCOHOL 



449 



Alcohol and Accidents 

Statistics also prove that alcoholism is a prolific 
cause of accidents, and in Zurich, records kept in 
the building trades for seven years indicated that 
the day after a Sunday or a holiday, accidents had 
averaged 42 per cent, increase, due to the effect of 
alcoholic dissipation during the non-working day 
and the effect on steadiness of nerve action and 
judgment the day after. 

The following diagram has been made from the 
studies of Ulbrecht of Dresden during 1894 and 
1895 and these investigations also show that Mon- 
day, or the day following a holiday, is the most pro- 
lific in accidents. The number of accidents on 
Monday was 53 per cent, more than on Wednesday, 
the best day of the week, and Sundays and holidays 



DIAGRAM MADE FROM THE INVESTIGATIONS OF 
ULBRECHT OF DRESDEN GIVING THE PERCENTAGE OF 
ACCIDENTS OCCURRING ON EACH DAY OF THE WEEK 



dQ 



I 
U 
< 

< -T W 

b.z!<! 

P 



15 



10 



3H. 



Li 

III 

<0 



a.bi 







































^^- — 


^v 










■ 


> 


k 












\ 












\ 




s 


^v % 






\ 




^ 





















































































































































<\ 

. Q 

Zj 
DO 



z <o 

O LJ 

2 £ 



or 



E 



< 

0) 



DAYS OF THE WEEK 
Fig. 31. 



450 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

— non-working days — had 40 per cent, more acci- 
dents than the best working day of the week. 

Dr. Miller has said that during the period covered 
by his records, the average number of accidents per 
day in Edinburgh, Scotland, was 5.65 and during 
Saturday and Saturday night it was 10.26. During 
Saturday night it was 6.08 and during the other 
nights only 0.9, the great difference being attributed 
to alcohol and drinking after pay day. Statistics 
compiled in "Belgium indicate that 43 per cent, of 
all accidents in the mines and factories of that 
country were attributed to the excessive use of 
alcohol. 

German statistics have shown the association of 
alcohol with accidents. Investigations have shown 
that alcohol tends to : 

1. Dull senses and alertness in perceiving danger, 

2. Impair judgment of distances and thus of danger, 

3. Impair ability to decide quickly and accurately how to 

avoid danger, 

4. May cause unsteadiness of hand or foot and physical 

instability. 

The Leipzig Sick Benefit Club report, covering 
workers representing 952,674 insurance years, that 
at all age periods the workers in whom Physicians 
saw the effect of alcoholism, had from two to three 
times as many accidents as the average workman. 
The records of these Clubs give some interesting 
statistics covering the illness and mortality between 
"average" men and the men classed as drinkers — 
those in which the Physicians were able to detect 
some physical effects of alcoholism. 

At the age period of 25-34 years, for every 1,000 
insured years, the average number of cases of sick- 



ALCOHOL 451 

ness was 368, but the drinker had 973 or 2.64 times 
the average. At the age period of 35-44, the drinker 
had 2.83 times as many cases of sickness as the 
average, 2.6 times for the age period 45-64 and 
2.93 times for 65 and over. The duration of sick- 
ness was as follows : 



Age Period 


Average Men 


Alcoholics 


Years 


Days 


Days 


25-34 


7.53 


19.29 


35-44 


10.03 


27.13 


45-54 


13.29 


33.32 


55-64 


18.38 


40.79 


65-74 


29.52 


76.84 



These figures show the increase in illness due to 
age and the increase of illness caused by alcohol 
undermining the system. At every age period 
Alcoholics lost about 2% times as much working 
time as the average man — an increase of suffering, 
loss of income and economic loss to the family 
and state. The mortality figure for every 10,000 
insurance years given in the Leipzig statistics are as 
follows : 

Age Period, Years Average Men Alcoholics 
25-34 53 122 

35-44 97 284 

45-54 167 372 

55-64 298 364 

65-74 580 746 

Death, therefore, carried off in the prime of life 
from 2 to 3 times as many men addicted to the ex- 
cessive or habitual use of alcohol as other average 
insured men. 

The Steel Works at Volklingen, Germany, found 



452 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

that their temperate employes averaged 8 accidents 
per 1,000 men, while the general rate in the Works 
was 12 per 1,000. 

The responsibility of the workman toward his fel- 
lows is indicated in the statement recently issued by 
the Fidelity and Casualty Accident Insurance Co. 

"A man whose nerves have been made unsteady 
by a recent debauch or by the habitual use of alcohol 
should not be permitted to operate dangerous ma- 
chinery or to carry on dangerous work. He en- 
dangers not only his own life, but the life of others/' 

Alcohol and Crime 

Kurz has prepared some interesting figures as a 
result of German investigations bearing upon the 
prolificness of bodily injuries arising from the use 
of alcohol and absence from work. His figures 
refer to injuries sustained from assaults and should 
not be confused with records of accidents. The 
following chart shows that considering the average 
week-day cases of bodily injuries, other than Mon- 
day, as 1, then the average number of injuries on 
Monday is 2.28 and on Sundays and holidays 7.85. 
Of the total number of arrests for assault 66.5 per 
cent, were made in saloons, but many assaults com- 
mitted outside drinking houses were also attributed 
to the excessive use of alcohol. It has been said, 
"The sober man thinks before he acts. Alcohol 
makes a man act before he thinks." Alcohol often 
causes irritability and weakens the judgment and 
self-control needed to hold irritability in check. 

Judge Rentoul, of Great Britain, has said, 
"Several of our greatest Judges have stated that 90 
per cent, of all the crime they have tried arises from 



ALCOHOL 



453 



drink. I can say exactly the same — but I have 
found the evils arising from drink greater in the 
civil than in the criminal courts. The unhappiness, 
poverty, hatred and ill-will arising from the amount 
of money spent by some members of the family are 
worse in their effects than actual crime, and I speak 
with equal experience in both courts." 

CHART OF BODILY INJURIES 
ON DIFFERENT DAYS OF THE WEEK. 



1 




SUNDAYS &HOLIDAYSpp^^MI62< 


MONDAYS 


^B 


182 














95 
67 
62 
62 
92 






TUESDAYS 




RECORD 


WEDNESDAYS 


OF 


THURSDAYS 


i; 


2or 


» 


<Jfl 


£>t 


s 


FRIDAYS 












SATURDAYS 


NS OF ASSAULTS 


oooooooo 
oooooooo 

■"-Olto^intor-co 



CHART OF WHERE ARRESTS WERE MADE 



SALOONS 



HOMES 



STREETS 



AT WORK 



VARIOUS PLACES 




742 

RECORD 

OF 1115 

ARRESTS 



N2 OF ARRESTS 



OOOOOOOO 

oooooooo 



Fig. 32 



454 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Of 269 murderers, committed to Wisconsin 
State Penitentiary at Waupun in recent years, the 
authorities report : 

41 . 5 per cent, used alcohol to excess, 

27.9 " " had previously been arrested for drunkenness, 

12.6 " " did not use alcohol. 

Records made in Sweden between 1887 and 1905 
showed that of the men prisoners 71.9 per cent, were 
either intoxicated when the crime was committed, or 
were habitual drinkers. The influence of alcohol 
was proved as follows : 

In 86.5 per cent, of breaches of public order and regulation, 



85.2 


< 


of assassinations, murders and physical 
violence, 


82.3 


" 


1 of robbery with violence, 


71.2 


" 


' of breaches of military law, 


68.3 


u 


" of thefts and larcenies, 


66.9 


" 


" of sexual crime, 


38.8 


ft 


" of swindling, 


34.6 


(( 


' of perjury, 


33.0 




" of libel. 



Investigations conducted in the state of Massa- 
chusetts show that of the 155,487 persons arrested 
in 1912, 98,651, or 63.4 per cent., were arrested for 
drunkenness. The report of the Board of Prison 
Commissioners commenting on these and other 
kindred statistics, says, "The abuse of alcohol, di- 
rectly or indirectly, does more to fill our prisons, 
insane hospitals, institutions for the feeble-minded 
and alms-houses than all other causes combined. 
. . . Ninety-five per cent, of all prisoners com- 
mitted to Massachusetts prisons were of intemperate 
habits." 

The Criminal Statistics of England and Wales 



ALCOHOL 455 

for 1913 report that, "The number of persons tried 
for indictable offenses were 63,269 and for non- 
indictable offenses 680,290. Of these 204,038 were 
cases of drunkenness." 

The Committee of Fifty, with Hon. Seth Low, 
of Columbia University, as Chairman, found that 
in more than 12,000 cases investigated, the excessive 
consumption of alcoholic liquors was responsible for 
49.9 per cent, of the crimes committed. 

The various influences that caused the breaking 
up of homes in Chicago were tabulated from the 
official records in 1913 by Judge Gemmill of the 
Court of Domestic Relations : 





Per cent. 


Drink, 




46 


Immorality, 




14 


Disease, 




12 


111 temper and abuse, 


11 


Intemperance 


of parents, 


7 


Miscellaneous 


causes, 


10 



100 

An investigation conducted in 1914 by the 
Brooklyn Court of Domestic Relations indicated 
that 48.5 per cent, of family separations could be 
attributed to alcohol — economic and moral. 

The U. S. Census Reports indicate that for a 
period covering 20 years, alcohol was a cause in 
19.5 per cent, of divorces and the sole cause of 7.9 
per cent. When divorces were granted to the wife, 
the husband was intemperate in 26.3 per cent, of the 
cases ; of the divorces granted to wives for neglect, 
the husand was intemperate in 21.2 per cent, of the 
cases, and in one divorce in every three granted to 
the wife for the husband's cruelty, he was in- 
temperate. 



456 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Alcoholism and Suicide 

The connection between Alcoholism and Suicide 
has been commented upon by Prof. Hillier, of Kiel, 
who reported autopsies on 300 suicides, and found 
that 48 per cent, were pronounced alcoholists. The 
following table shows that 73.6 per cent, of the 
male suicides over 30 years of age were addicted to 
excessive alcoholism. 

No. of Alcoholists No. of Alcoholists 

Males No. % Females No. %• 

Under 30 years, 63 14 22.2 41 1 2.4 

Over30years, 167 123 73.6 29 6 20.7 



Total, 230 137 59.5 70 7 10.0 

Dr. Sullivan, of the British Prison Service, says 
that alcoholic suicide is more impulsive than other 
forms and states that in 220 consecutive observa- 
tions he found that 78 per cent, of suicidal attempts 
were due to alcoholism. 

The Census Bureau Mortality Reports show that 
during the years 1901 to 1910 there were 62,660 
persons in the United States who committed suicide, 
and it has been said that 14,411 of these cases of 
self-destruction, or 23 per cent., can be attributed 
directly or indirectly to the excessive use of alcohol. 

Canteen System in Industry 

We have heard a good deal from Germany about 
Alcoholism in Industry and during the past two 
decades much has been done to enhance efficiency by 
endeavoring to curtail the use of alcohol by the 
workers. The alcoholic canteen system in Germany 
is in its essence opposed to health and efficiency, but 
the German method of endeavoring to curtail the 
use of alcohol by the substitution of tea, may in- 



ALCOHOL 



457 



crease the immediate efficiency of the workers in the 
shops — if the substitution is effected — but it is very 
doubtful as to whether it would improve the health 
of the men. The inauguration of the tea canteen at 
the Berlin General Electric Works has been said to 
have reduced the abuse of alcoholism, but an analysis 
of the figures presented to substantiate this state- 
ment shows that the consumption of alcohol has re- 
mained practically constant, whereas in one year the 
consumption of tea has increased 50 per cent. To 
the alcoholic evil has, therefore, been added a caf- 
feine and tannin drug evil, and it is interesting to 
note that whereas, in January, 1909, 6.4 drinks of 
tea were sold on the average to each employee, in 
January, 1910, the number had increased to 14.5; 
in January, 1911, it was 19.4, and in June, 1911 — 
the last month for which figures are available — it 
was 28.5. 



DIAGRAM SHOWING THE EXPERIENCE OF THE BERLIN 
GENERAL ELECTRIC SOCIETY WITH A TEA CANTEEN 
IN ADDITION TO THEIR ALCOHOLIC CANTEEN. 
7 325.000 



m 



300,000 
275,000 
250,000 
u. 3 5 225.000 
Op < 200,000 
W^" 175,000 
£$!£ 150,000 
|<E 125,000 
Q uS 100,000 
75,000 
50,000 
25.000 



OJw 

rv <Li 
UJ 




AVERAGE NUMBER OF 
- EMPLOYEES-10,081.- 



-t 



£ t 
K ( 

1910 



Q. 

< 

1911 



SCALE FOR MONTHS OF THE YEAR 

Fig. 33. 



458 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The diagram on page 457 has been prepared to 
show graphically the Alcohol and Tea consumption 
in the Berlin General Electric Societies Works for 
a period of one year . 

Other European manufacturing establishments 
have reported on the efficiency of the tea canteen as 
a substitute for alcohol, but their figures are not 
truly comparative. A crusade by employers against 
alcohol will naturally reduce the consumption of 
alcoholic beverages within the shops whether tea 
is sold to the men or not. No industrial plant or 
manufacturing establishment should, under any 
condition, sell alcoholic beverages to their workers, 
permit the use of such drinks within the plant, or 
sell or give to the employes any drugged drinks 
during working hours. The solution of the drinking 
evil in manufacturing plants lies in supplying the 
workers at or near their work, with good, pure and 
cool, fresh drinking water. At meal times hot 
coffee or weak tea, preferably the former, could be 
supplied if desired, but the use of drugged drinks 
should be limited to meal times, and pure, refresh- 
ing, running water supplied by sanitary fountains 
should be available at all times. 

Habit-forming Tendencies of Alcohol 

An unbiased investigation of available facts and 
general observation demonstrate conclusively that 
alcohol used habitually even in moderation, or oc- 
casionally to excess, is positively detrimental to 
health and possibly to morals. 

Tippling, which is habitual, and drunkenness, 
which is dissipation, are inefficient and therefore 



ALCOHOL 459 

should be avoided as they mar body and mind and 
lower the standard of one's work. 

The occasional use of alcohol for pathological 
purposes may be warranted but it is a pronounced 
habit-forming poison and should be let alone by 
those who do not need it and who may not be able, 
because of appetite, to control their desire for it. 
The poem of M. T. Higginson refers with subtle 
truth to the dormant appetite or hereditary 
tendency within some men : 

"We wondered why he always turned aside 
When mirth and gladness filled the brimming days; 
Who else so fit as he for pleasure's ways? 
Men thought him frozen by a selfish pride; 
But that his voice was music none denied, 
Or that his smile was like the sun's warm rays. 
One day upon the sands he spoke in praise 
Of swimmers who were buffeting the tide; 
'The swelling waves of life they dare to meet. 
I may not plunge where others safely go, — 
Unbidden longings in my pulses beat/ 
O, blind and thoughtless world ! you little know 
That ever round this hero's steadfast feet 
Surges and tugs the dreaded undertow." 

French Campaign Against Alcohol 

The following interesting Official Bulletin was 
posted a few years ago in various parts of Paris 
with the object of educating the public and par- 
ticularly the poorer classes to the moral, physical 
and economic effects of alcoholism or excessive 
drinking : 



460 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

FRENCH REPUBLIC 

Liberty Equality Fraternity 

General Administration of Relief of the Poor in Paris. 
Alcoholism: Its dangers 

(The following are extracts from the Official Manifesto, 
appearing under the above heading.) 

Alcoholism is chronic poisoning resulting from the habitual 
use of alcohol even when this is not taken in amounts sufficient 
to produce drunkenness. It is an error to state that alcohol is 
necessary for workmen who are engaged in arduous manual 
labor, that it gives energy for work or that it renews strength. 
The artificial excitement which it produces quickly gives place 
to nervous depression and weakness. 



The habit of drinking spirits leads quickly to alcoholism, 
but the so-called hygienic drinks also contain alcohol; the 
only difference is one of quantity; the man who daily drinks 
an immoderate quantity of wine, cider or beer becomes as 
surely alcoholic as the one who drinks brandy. 



The drinks called "Aperitives" (absinthe, vermouth), and 
the aromatic liqueurs (such as Creme de Menthe), are the 
most pernicious because they contain — in addition to alcohol — 
essences which are themselves also violent poisons. 



The habit of drinking leads to neglect of family, to forget- 
fulness of all social duties, to distaste for work, to want, 
theft and crime. It leads to the hospital — for alcoholism 
causes a great variety of diseases, many of them most deadly : 
paralysis, insanity, disorders of the stomach and of the liver, 
dropsy; it is one of the most frequent causes of consumption. 



The hygienic faults of parents are visited upon their 
children. 



Alcoholism is one of the most frightful scourges, whether it 
be regarded from the point of view of the health of the 
individual, of the existence of the family, or of the future 
of the country. 



ALCOHOL 461 

Statistical Investigatons Into Causes of Alcoholism 

Investigations into the causes which led to 
alcoholism, conducted at the Bellevue and Allied 
Hospitals, New York, with 246 patients, gave the 
following results: 





Per cent. 


Sociability, 


52.5 


Trouble — business or domestic, 


13. 


Medical Use, 


9.3 

rr 


Occupation, 
Taught by elders, 


7. 
7. 


Out of work, 


5. 


Unknown, 


5. 


To be considered "sporty," 


1.2 



Total, 100.0 

Statistics Showing Ages at Which Alcoholism Begins 

An investigation, with 259 alcoholic patients, to 
determine the age when they commenced taking 
alcoholic beverages gave the following interesting 
results : 

Per cent. 
Between the ages of 1 and 12, 6.5 
Between the ages of 12 and 16, 23. 
Between the ages of 16 and 21, 39. 
After 21, 31.5 



Total, 100.0 

Dr. Brandthwaite's investigations among in- 
ebriate English women in reformatories indicated 
that 42 per cent, had commenced to drink to excess 
before they were 21 years of age. 

Robert R. Batty, Sociologist, has said, "It is 
during adolescence that the taste for alcohol de- 
clares itself. It is a noteworthy fact that in nearly 
90 per cent, of confirmed inebriates the addiction 
to drink begins between 15 and 25 years of age." 



462 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Investigations in the Public Schools of Philadel- 
phia showed that out of 18,503 children in 23 
schools, 4,438, or nearly one-quarter admitted that 
they drank alcoholic beverages. To feed alcohol or 
any drug in any form, except in severe illness, to 
children is not only indicative of parental ignor- 
ance, but it is an outrage committed against one's 
offspring and society and can be truthfully termed 
criminal. Dr. Rankine has truly said, "The stern 
forbidding of the use of both alcohol and tobacco 
under the age of puberty would shield the nervous 
centers from two of their most deadly enemies." 
Dr. Rankine does not carry his advocacy of abstin- 
ence far enough. It should cover the period of 
adolescence and no minor should be given alcohol 
or any drug except pathologically. Bauderlier and 
Roepke have said, "Above all, parents and edu- 
cators must be shown that alcohol in any form or 
any quantity must be forbidden to children and 
youths. If they are allowed to take alcohol regu- 
larly to strengthen them or for other reasons, a race 
of candidates for consumption will be produced." 
No minor needs alcohol, tea, coffee, tobacco or 
drugstore "doped" drinks and their health during 
growth and development demands total abstinence 
from all poisons. There are about thirty million 
children under fifteen years of age in the Unitep! 
States, and a large percentage of these boys and 
girls are suffering because of the ignorance and in- 
difference of their parents, teachers, guardians and 
doctors in regard to food, drink, air, exercise, con- 
fined studies, quackery, belief in everything they see 
in print, including spurious advertising, medical 
charlatanry and superstition. No child needs 
alcohol except under certain conditions when suffer- 



ALCOHOL 463 

ing from severe disease and then it should be ad- 
ministered pathologically by a skilled professional 
physician and not by the parents or a medical 
mountebank. A belief in the strengthening and 
supporting qualities of alcohol, for people in health 
and all who live approximately normal or sane lives, 
is fast becoming as obsolete as the belief in witch- 
craft. 

Effects of Parental Alcoholism on Offspring 

Alcoholism which can be defined as a diseased 
condition caused by the continued, excessive use of 
alcoholic liquors and habitual inebriation is not only 
abuse of the human body but a crime and a gross 
violation of nature's laws which may result in an 
impaired, weakened and abnormal constitution be- 
ing transmitted to an inebriate's offspring. "Alco- 
holism," said Dr. Lunier, "strikes a man not only in 
his person but also in his descendants," and Galton 
has said, "The individual is the trustee of the germ 
cells." There are too many criminal, imbecile and 
physically diseased persons and too high a death 
rate among the offspring of drunkards as compared 
with the children of sober or normal people to 
warrant letting such facts pass without comment. 
Imbault found that 36 per cent, of tuberculous 
children were the offspring of inebriates. Arrive 
investigating 1,506 cases of juvenile meningitis 
found this malady to be twice as frequent in the 
children of parents addicted to alcoholism as in 
those of parents seriously suffering from other wast- 
ing and degenerative diseases. In an investigation 
on the effects of parental alcoholism on the off- 
spring, Sullivan gives some important figures which 
have been plotted diagramatically. 



464 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



To avoid other complications he chose female 
drunkards in whom no other degenerative features 
were evident. Guyer reporting these investigations 
say, "He found that among these the percentages 
of abortions, still-births and deaths in infants before 
their third year was 55.8 per cent, as against 23.9 
per cent, in sober mothers. In answer to the ob- 

DIAGRAM SHOWING THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOLISM 
-INEBRIATION -IN MOTHERS UPON THEIR OFFSPRING 
(BASED UPON THE INVESTIGATIONS OF SULLIVAN). 
80 

^OK)70 

|lfe 60 

82£ 40 

£8y30 

5 -S20 



t 



CDCD 10 



> 



I st. 2*®' 35P- 4IH* 5Iti. 61H-&UP 
MJMBEELQF SUCCESSiYt-BIBlHS. 

Fig. 34 



jection that this high percentage might be due to 
neglect and not to impairment of the fetus by 
alcoholism, he points out the fact based on the his- 
tory of the successive births, that there was a pro- 
gressive increase in the death rate of offspring in 
proportion to the length of time the mother had 
been an inebriate." 

Dr. Branthwaite, Inspector under the British In- 
ebriates Act, reports that his investigations show 
that 1291 women admitted to Inebriate Reforma- 



ALCOHOL 465 

tories had given birth to 4,086 children of which 44 
per cent, were dead. 

Forel, the noted psychiatrist of Zurich, Switzer- 
land, has said, "The offspring tainted with alcoholic 
blastophoric suffers various bodily and physical 
anomalies among which are a predisposition to 
tuberculosis and epilepsy, idiocy — moral and gen- 
eral — rickets, dwarfism, a predisposition to crime 
and mental diseases, sexual perversions and many 
other misfortunes." 

Alcoholism in men is deplorable and a disease of 
blighting depravity, but alcoholism in women, who 
are highly organized, sensitive, responsive, and 
nervous creatures and the mothers of the race, re- 
sults in no uncertain manner in the vitiation, de- 
generation and suffering of offspring, and feminine 
inebriation must be considered as a positive, expres- 
sion of moral corruption and wickedness. 

That alcoholism in men affects the health of off- 
spring is well known, but it is not evident to the 
degree that exists with women. It may be, how- 
ever, that the known and investigated cases of 
alcoholism in women who are mothers would reveal 
the fact that the fathers were also inebriates, for 
alcoholic women would most probably cohabit with 
men addicted to alcoholism, whereas many a normal 
and moral woman, free from any depraving vice, 
has the misfortune to be married to a drunkard. If 
this assumption is correct, alcoholism in women 
could be considered in many and possibly in the ma- 
jority of cases to mean inebriation of both parents, 
whereas alcoholism in men would probably, in rela- 
tion to offspring, be considered to more generally 
refer to the inebriation of the male parent only. 



466 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

There are many cases of record where women 
married to sober men have given birth to healthy 
normal children and when married before or later 
to inebriates have had the misfortune to bring ab- 
normal and physically or mentally diseased children 
into the world. Schweighofer and For el both tell 
us of a normal healthy woman who had three sound 
children when married to a normal man. "After the 
death of this husband she married an inebriate by 
whom she had three other children. One of these 
suffered from infantilism, one turned out to be a 
drunkard and the third became a social degenerate 
and drunkard. Moreover, the first two contracted 
tuberculosis, although hitherto the family stock had 
been free from this malady. Ultimately the woman 
married again and by this third husband, who was 
normal, she again had sound children." 

Prof. Demme, of Berne, Switzerland, has made 
comparative observations and investigations upon 
10 alcoholic and 10 temperate families, for 12 years 
living in the same circumstances and following 
similar trades, and his findings were as follows : 

Alcoholic Temperate 



Total Number of Children, 


57 


61 


Number deformed, 


10 


2 


idiotic, 


6 





epileptic, choreic, 


6 


(2 backward) 


non-viable, 


25 


3 


normal, 


10 


54 



Therefore, 17.5 per cent, of the alcoholic and 88.5 
per cent, of the temperate progeny were normal. 

Prof. Demme also analyzed the intemperate 
families according to ancestral drinking habits and 
found that the abnormalities increased with the 



ALCOHOL 



467 



extent of ancestral drinking, as the following table 
shows : 

No. of No. of Died Defect- 
Drinkers Families Children Normal Young ive 
Father only, 3 20 7 7 6 
Father and Grandfather, 6 31 2 15 14, 
Father and Mother, 16 13 2 

Dr. T. A. MacNicoll, of New York, has obtained 
statistics in his study of ten other families of 
drinkers and ten families of abstainers, from which 
the accompanying comparative charts have been 
prepared : 

A RECORD OF TWENTY FAMILIES 




hlHiMUMrailgKIW 



Sixty-five Children of Ten Families of Regular Drinkers. 











































^ 


& 


A 


L 


















^ 


" 








































IE 


w 


= RH.t 
























iimiiii 

luiiiiii 




[ilJabJUIili 





Seventy Children of Ten Families of Abstainers. 

Fig. 35 



468 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Alcoholic Families 


Families of Abs1 


65 


Number of Children 


70 


30 

8 
5 
4 


Died in Infancy 

Tuberculosis 

Neurotic 

Anaemic 


2 

1 
1 
1 


3 
3 
3 
3 


Very poor teeth 
Heart Disease 

Adenoids 
Imbecile, Insane 








1 

1 



Epileptic 

Diabetes 

Rheumatic 





1 


4 


Normal 


64 


6.15 


Percentage normal 


91.43 



Of the rating in school 8 of the children of the 
alcoholics' and 66 of the abstainers' offspring were 
fair and better. Dr. MacNicoll states that his in- 
vestigations indicate that the degenerative factor 
becomes more potent with each transmission and 
renders posterity more and more suspectible to dis- 
ease. An illustration may be noted in the children 
of ten families of drinking parents traced through 
three generations : 



Generation 


No. of Children 


Percentage suffering 

from organic 

and functional diseases 


First, 


47 


50 


Second, 


90 


62 


Third, 


82 


95 



MacNicoll further says that as a result of his 
study during 20 years, he is convinced that for every 
child of total abstainers that dies under 2 years of 
age, five children of excessive drinking parents die ; 
that one child out of every five born to parents 



ALCOHOL 469 

addicted to alcoholism will become ultimately in- 
sane, and one child out of every three will suffer 
from epilepsy and hysteria. 

Doctor Jacquet, of the Hospital Saint- Antoine, 
Paris, during 1912-12 conducted a thorough investi- 
gation covering the infant mortality record of 396 
families, having a total of 879 children. He divided 
the patients into three classes, with results as 
follows : 





No. of 


No. of 


No. of 


Percentage 




Patients 


Children 


Deaths of Mortality 


Moderate Alcoholism; those 










who drink 1 litre of wine, 










alcohol or rarely aperients 


141 


305 


83 


18.78 


Decided Alcoholism, those 










who drink habituallj from 










1.5 to 2 litres of wine, 










alcohol or absinthe rather 










frequently 


108 


248 


115 


26.01 


Very Decided Alcoholism ; 










those who drink habitually 








- 


2 litres of wine or more, 










aperients, alcohol, occa- 










sional repeated absinthe . . 


147 

396 


326 

879 


244 
442 


55.4T 


Total 


50.f8 



Prof. G. von Bunge, of Basel University, 
Switzerland, made an investigation of the families 
of 

149 occasional drinkers, 

169 habitual moderate drinkers, 

67 habitual immoderate drinkers, 

60 confirmed drunkards, 

to determine the relation between alcoholism and 
tuberculosis on the progeny of hard and moderate 
drinkers. In this investigation only those results 
were recorded of families in which both parents 
were free from any chronic disease and where the 



470 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

history of the father's drinking habits was fully 
known. The results he obtained are of interest : 

Per cent. 
Children of occasional drinkers, 8.7 Tubercular 

Children of habitual moderate drinkers, 10.7 
Children of habitual immoderate drinkers, 16.4 
Children of confirmed drunkards, 21.7 

The percentage of defective children in these 
families were 2.3 per cent, for the occasional 
drinkers, 4.6 per cent, for the regular moderate 
drinkers, 9 per cent, for the regular heavy drinkers 
and 19 per cent, for the drunkards. 

The Phipps Institute (Pennsylvania) reports in 
1907 that 37 per cent, of the tuberculosis patients 
who were of alcoholic parentage improved and 13.5 
per cent, died; but of patients of non-alcoholic 
parentage 47 per cent, improved and only 9.4 per 
cent. died. 

Prof. Laitinen, of the University of Helsingfors, 
has reported a comparison of children of fifty 
temperate or abstaining and fifty-nine drinking 
families is one village in Finland. In the temperate 
families the weakly children were found to consti- 
tute 1.3 per cent. ; in the drinking families they were 
8.2 per cent. Of the children in the temperate 
families 18.5 per cent, died in infancy; in the drink- 
ing families 24.8 per cent. died. In the abstaining 
families 0.94 per cent, of all births were mis- 
carriages; in the drinking families there were 6.21 
per cent., or nearly seven times as many. 

Prof. Laitinen carried his studies of the mortality 
of children into a large number of families with the 
following results : 



ALCOHOL 471 

No. of Families considered, 5,736 

No. of Children in these families, 19,519 

Percentage of Miscarriages 

Children Dead Percentage of Births 
Abstaining parents, 13 1.07 

Moderate drinking parents, 23 5.26 

Immoderate drinking parents, 32 7.11 

Dr. Scharlieb states that Alcohol is present in the 
milk of the heavy- drinking mother; "the child re- 
ceives Alcohol as part of his diet with the worst 
effect upon his organs, for Alcohol has a greater 
effect upon cells in proportion to their immaturity." 

In a study of the mental efficiency of ordinary 
children undertaken in 1901 for the New York 
Academy of Medicine, by Doctor MacNicoll, 55,000 
school children were examined. Of these 58 per 
cent, were below the required standard of intelli- 
gence, 16 per cent, being deficient, 25 per cent, 
very deficient and 17 per cent, dullards. 

The habits of the parents with regard to alcohol 
was reported in 20,147 cases, with the result that 53 
per cent, of the children of alcoholic parents and 
10 per cent, of the children of temperate parents 
were found to be dullards. 

The family histories of 3,711 children were traced 
through three generations, with the following re- 
sults : 

(1) Of those free from hereditary alcoholic taint, 

96 per cent, were proficient, 
4 " " were dullards, 
18 " suffered from some neurosis or 

organic disease. 

(2) Of those with hereditary alcoholic taint, 

23 per cent, were proficient, 
77 " " were dullards, 
76 " " suffered from some neurosis or 
organic disease. 



472 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Dr. Potts, in his official report on the school 
children of Birmingham, England, traced back- 
ward the relation of children to parents. In the 
case of 250 mentally defective children he found 
41.6 per cent, had one or both parents alcoholic. 
For comparison, 100 normal children from similar 
homes in the same district were studied and only 17 
per cent, came from alcoholic parentage. 

The report of the Committee of Fifty, on the 
Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem indicates 
that 45.83 per cent, of 5,184 destitute and neglected 
children studied in eight states owed their condition 
to an alcoholic environment. The Chicago Juvenile 
Protective Association, in the first half of 1910 
dealt with 1,379 cases of adult delinquency toward 
children and found that 1,034 (75 per cent.) had 
alcoholism of the parents as the chief cause. Ex- 
cessive alcoholism robs a child of its right to be well- 
born, properly nurtured and cared for, and well 
trained. 

All the children of alcoholic parents are not de- 
fective, physically or mentally, but that an unusual 
majority are abnormal and that the tendency is 
toward degeneration of offspring is undoubted in 
the light of unbiased scientific investigation. In- 
ebriation and habitual drunkenness should be 
shunned and avoided as the plague by all fathers 
and mothers, for alcoholism reacts upon offspring, 
and in the language of the old law of the Jews 
"The sins of the fathers (and mothers) are visited 
upon the children unto the third and fourth genera- 
tions." 



ALCOHOL 473 

Alcohol Given to Children and Its Results 

In many of the countries of Europe, parents give 
their children wine or beer, believing that it is a 
beneficial drink. In homes transplanted to America, 
the custom has continued. In a survey made by the 
Cincinnati Tuberculosis Society in 1912 "in four 
districts it was found that in the Hungarian families 
42 per cent, of the children drank alcohol; in the 
Italian families 49 per cent. ; in the Irish families 48 
per cent." Doczi reports that the Hungarian 
Official Alcohol Commission found that more than 
a third of the alcohol-using school children were 
careless and idle, and 20 per cent, were unduly 
nervous. Hecker, in the Munchen Public Schools, 
found that "the slowness of perception increased 
and diligence and progress decreased with pupils in 
proportion to the extent of their drinking habits." 

Emmanuel Bayr, School Director of Vienna, has 
reported a comparison between the abstaining and 
drinking school children in Vienna, his investiga- 
tions covering the records of 588 pupils in 14 
classes. Of this number 134 were abstainers, 164 
drank alcohol occasionally, 219 took alcohol once 
each day, 71 twice per day and 3 three times daily. 
The record of the scholarship of these children is as 
follows : 

High Marks Fair Marks Low Marks 

Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 

Abstainers, 42 49 9 

Occasional Drinkers, 34 57 9 

Once per day " 29 58 14 

Twice per day " 25 58 18 

The Viennese children who drank alcohol took it 
in the form of beer, wine or rum in tea. Not one 



474 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

of the three children who took alcohol three times 
daily showed good marks in school. 

Schiavi has made a somewhat similar study of the 
school children in Brescia, Italy. Records were 
taken of 3,999 pupils in the Public Schools, with 
the following results : 

SCHOLARSHIP 

Percentage High Fair Low 

of total Marks Marks Marks 

Children Percent. Percent. Percent. 

Abstainers, 11.5 42.8 53.4 3.8 

Occasional Drinkers, 38.0 30.8 42. 27.2 

Daily Drinkers, 50.5 29.8 39.8 30.4 

Alcoholic Experiments on Animals 

Exhaustive experiments conducted with animals 
clearly demonstrate the vicious effect of alcoholism 
upon progeny. These tests show that with animals 
as in man, alcoholics are more prolific than normal 
beings. Laitinen found with alcoholized rabbits and 
guinea pigs, that more offspring were born dead and 
the living were stunted as compared with the young 
of normal animals. Ceni found that only 43 per 
cent, of the eggs from alcoholized fowls developed 
normally as against 77 per cent, of normal develop- 
ment in similar fowls naturally fed. Hodge's tests 
with dogs showed only 17.4 per cent, of healthy 
normal pups from alcoholized parents and 90.2 per 
cent, of healthy offspring from similar dogs 
naturally fed. Stockard's experiments have demon- 
strated that the offspring of mammals may be in- 
jured and detrimentally modified in their develop- 
ment by treating either or both parents repeatedly 
with alcohol. The guinea pigs used in the experi- 
ments were all first tested by normal matings and 
found to yield normal offspring. The alcohol was 



ALCOHOL 475 

given to them by inhalation. It was found to be 
readily taken into the animal's blood and to produce 
intoxication. While guinea pigs, alcoholized in this 
way as often as six times a week for two and a half 
years, would apparently maintain their own bodily 
vigor and health, the deleterious effects on their 
progeny were marked. The defects were general 
rather than specific, although the central nervous 
system and special sense organs were apparently 
affected most. Out of 119 total young produced by 
alcoholic animals, only 52 or 43.7 per cent, survived, 
whereas, out of 64 young produced from normal 
parents, 56 or 87% per cent, survived. 

The following table has been prepared to give a 
summary of the most important results obtained 
from Stockard's tests on the progeny of guinea pigs 
treated with alcohol. It will be interesting to note 
the effect of alcohol on the second generation : 

«4-l =- 

Condition ^ §| bolol. 

Animals . ^o.^ tt^_. >£.££■£ 

© «tt o <v >%<f. o^oa a; «■> o " 

1 Male-Alcoholic HO W Q °^ ^° ^» fcfl ^ » 
Female— Normal 69 15 21 36 33 52.1 

2 Male — Normal 

Female — Alcoholic 28 9 9 18 10 64.3 

3 Male— Alcoholic 

Female— Alcoholic 22 6 7 13 9 59.1 

Summary of 

Alcoholic matings 119 30 37 67 52 56.3 

4 Male — Normal 

Female— Normal 64 4 4 8 56 12.5 

5 Male — Second generation 

(alcoholic parents) 
Female — Normal 4 4 

6 Male — Second generation 

(alcoholic parents) 
Female — Alcoholic 7 5 5 2 71.4 

7 Male — Second generation 

(alcoholic parents) 19 6 6 13 31.6 

Female — Second generation 
(alcoholic parents) 



476 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The perfect record of second generation males 
mated with normal females is due to the relatively 
small number of investigatioss made ; but Stockard's 
conclusions are that the only hope for such an 
alcoholized line of individuals is that it can be 
crossed by normal stock, in which case the vigor of 
the normal germ cell in the combination may 
counteract, or at any rate reduce the extent of 
injury in the body cells of the resulting animal. 
Prof. Laitinen has made some interesting "long 
period" tests, using extremely small quantities of 
alcohol daily for eight months with the water fed to 
rabbits and guinea pigs. He reports that 51 per 
cent, of the offspring of the mildly alcoholized 
animals survived and 62 per cent, of the offspring 
of similar "costrel" animals fed with water lived. 
The results of his investigations in regard to weight 
and weight-gaining power of the progeny is given 
as follows : 

RABBITS GUINEA PIGS 

Average Average 

weight Average Average daily 

of daily increase weight of increase 

newly-born of weight newly-born of weight 

Grams Grams Grams Grams 
Water and alcohol 

fed to parents, 79.0 7.13 73.74 4.3 

Water fed to 

parents, 87.9 9.46 77.3 5.2 

These tests, he says, prove conclusively the in- 
jurious effect of even the smallest quantities of 
alcohol fed continuously. The tests were made on 
the basis of .6 oz. of alcohol per day for a man of 
150 lbs. weight. 

Alcohol has been found to affect the brain centres 
of the lower animals. Prof. Hodge, referring to 
his exhaustive experiments says: "The least thing 



ALCOHOL 477 

out of the ordinary, caused practically all the 
alcoholic dogs to exhibit fear where the others 
evinced only curiosity or interest," and again refer- 
ring to his tests on cats he says, "Playfulness, pur- 
ring, cleanliness and care of coat, interest in mice, 
fear of dogs, which normally developed before the 
experiments began, all disappeared so suddenly 
(when alcohol was administered) that it could 
hardly be explained otherwise than as a direct in- 
fluence of the alcohol upon the higher centers of the 
brain." 

Prof. Hodge's retriever tests on dogs are inter- 
esting. He took four puppies of the same age, size 
and physical powers, and in the University Gym- 
nasium where the dogs had been trained to retrieve 
a ball thrown about 100 feet, he subjected two of 
the four puppies to the influence of small doses of 
alcohol and found that the average results for 14 
successive days showed that the normal dogs re- 
trieved 66 per cent, of the balls thrown and the 
alcoholic dogs only 34 per cent. Moreover, the 
normal dogs, he states, showed greater alertness, 
strength and energy. 

Dr. Magnan, of Paris, describing a dog placed 
under the influence of alcohol, says that it did not 
respond to caresses but snapped at kindly attempts 
to pet it. At night when all was still it would ex- 
press fear, suffer from insomnia and whine plain- 
tively. 

In view of the strong circumstantial evidence 
present both as regards man himself and the ex- 
periments made on animals, there can be but little 
doubt that excessive alcoholism, that is habitual and 
persistent inebriation, has a pronounced tendency 
to produce defective offspring. 



478 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Alcoholism at Times the Result of Defective Stock 

We should not lose sight of the fact that an 
antecedent degeneracy or neural instability un- 
doubtedly plays an important part in many cases in 
the original production of drunkards, and when 
such weakness occurs, it, as well as the direct effects 
of alcoholic poisoning, must be reckoned with in the 
effects on progeny. Studies carried on by Pearson, 
Elderton and Barrington in London have led these 
investigators to believe that extreme alcoholic in- 
ebriation may be a result of inherited defective 
stock and not a prime cause of degeneracy. Branth- 
waite has found as a result of his investigations that 
63 per cent, of the inebriates that came under his 
attention were mentally defective. Michael F. 
Guyer says, "It is coming to be realized more and 
more that pronounced alcoholism is due in a large 
percentage of cases, perhaps over half, to a defec- 
tive nervous make-up. When children show a 
hereditary inclination toward drink, unquestion- 
ably one of the strongest factors is the inheritance 
of the same disposition, the same nervous constitu- 
tion and its accompanying lack of self-control which 
led the parent to drink, rather than the inheritance 
of the effects of drink on the parents. In some 
cases a parent may not become a drunkard until 
after the children, who also become drunkards, are 
born. That a tendency to drink immoderately is 
frequently due to a strain of feeble-mindedness and 
epilepsy becomes more evident every day." 

Influence of Alcohol on Cell Life 

The bodies of all animals are built up of very 
small forms of matter called cells. Some micro- 
scopic animals have unicellular organisms where all 



ALCOHOL 



479 



fundamental functions and processes, such as nutri- 
tion, growth, reproduction and excretion take place 
within this living unity, but by far the greater 
number of animals and plants are a social mechan- 
ism where the organism is not an individual cell, 
but is built up of thousands or millions of cells with 
the different required functions distributed among 
them. This is the case with our own bodies which 
are built up of many millions of cells arranged in 
organs, each with its own duty to perform. It is 



DIAGRAM SHOWING EFFECT OF ALCOHOL IN 

CHECKING THE GROWTH OF THE TORULA 
(ONE OF THE SIMPLEST FORMS OF CELL LIFE), 
co 2250 



-j 

LU 

u 



(DO 



DI 

z< 

~"UJ 

oi 



1750 
1500 
1250 

lOOtf 
750 
500 



£3 250 




I NOTE 

N2 OF CELLS IN 5% ALCOHOL" 

SOLUTION WAS ONLY 69.- 



NOTE 

-COMPILED FROM THE INVESTIGATIONS 
OF PROFESSOR HODGE. 



NONE 



1000 



100 



10 



PERCENTAGE ALCOHOL SOLUTION 
IN WHICH TORULA WAS SOWN. 

Fig. 36 



interesting to study the effect of alcohol, not only 
upon animals but upon cell life, for as Prof. Hodge 
has said, "By studying the influence of alcohol upon 
these functions in simpler organisms, evidence may 
be gained by which more clearly to interpret the 
human experiment." 



480 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

One of the simplest forms of cell life is the 
Torula, which consists of a single cell possessing a 
power of rapid multiplication by subdivision. The 
growth of this cell has been investigated by Prof. 
Hodge, both in a simple nutrient solution and in the 
same fluid to which a small quantity of alcohol had 
been added. He found that the rapidity of growth 
of the Torula was lessened and inhibited when 
alcohol was present, and the general results of his 
experiments have been plotted in the diagram on 
page 479. 

It is interesting to note that actual stoppage of 
growth occurred when the proportion of alcohol 
reached 14 per cent.; and when the nutrient solution 
contained 5 per cent, of alcohol, the number of 
Torula cells per cubic millimeter after seven hours, 
was only 69, or only 3.3 per cent, of the number pro- 
duced in a normal non-alcoholic solution. 

Dr. Ridge has proved that cress seeds are killed 
by a one per cent, alcoholic solution, and smaller 
quantities of alcohol retarded the normal growth. 
Small quantities of alcohol were found to have a 
pronounced deleterious effect upon the green color- 
ing matter of plants (as does also lack of light and 
sunshine). Richardson found that an extremely 
mild alcoholic solution proved fatal to fresh water 
medusae (jelly fish), water fleas, etc. Prof. 
Rauber, using relatively stronger alcoholic solu- 
tions, generally 10 per cent., found that alcohol acts 
as a definite protoplasmic poison upon all the forms 
of cell-life upon which he experimented ; that plants 
become shrivelled and pale ; that animals become in- 
toxicated and poisoned and that those that live in 
water soon die. "Crayfish placed in a 2 per cent, 
solution of alcohol succumb within a single day; 



ALCOHOL 481 

perch placed in a 2 to 4 per cent, solution become 
rapidly intoxicated, fall to the bottom of the vessel 
and die." 

Stockard found that a 5 per cent, alcoholic solu- 
tion caused defects in development of from 90 to 98 
per cent, of fish eggs. His tests on fish and guinea 
pigs proved that alcohol attacked first, in accord- 
ance with physiological laws, the highest and most 
specialized nerve tissues and centers, such as eyes, 
ears, and, in severe cases, the brain itself. Frere made 
comparative tests with the hatching of chickens in in- 
cubators, with and without the presence of alcoholic 
vapors, and found a large percentage of abnor- 
malities in the chickens hatched under the influence 
of alcohol. 

Alcohol in Relation to Climatic Conditions 

The notion, once very prevalent and still often 
expressed and firmly held, that alcohol in some form 
or other is necessary for those living in tropical 
climates, has been and continues to be a most mis- 
chievous delusion. Sir J. R. Martin, Surgeon of 
Calcutta, India, has said, "We hear much about 
the supposed preventive influence of spirits and 
tobacco against night exposure, malaria and con- 
tagion, but no medical observer in any of our 
numerous colonies has ever seen reason to believe in 
any such delusive doctrine, nor is there in reality 
the smallest foundation for it." Dr. Fergusson, 
Inspector-General of the British Military Hospital 
Service, said many years ago, "To administer spirits 
under a burning sun as an article of food, or to 
allow a man access to them as preparatory to duties 
of exertion and fatigue or even with a view of sup- 
porting him under them, is about as judicious as it 



482 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

would be to give him a blow on the head. The one 
would not more certainly disqualify him for every 
purpose of service than the other." The use of 
alcohol in the Tropics is contra-indicated by every 
known fact of hygiene and scientific observation 
and all the authorities now agree that the less any 
one, who may be called upon to visit or live in 
tropical countries, takes in the way of alcohol, the 
better it will be for his health, physical comfort and 
adaptability to extreme climatic conditions. Dr. 
Bryden in the "Vital Statistics of Bengal" has 
shown that nothing is more inimical to acclimatisa- 
tion in India than the habitual and steady use of 
alcohol. Many other authorities have testified con- 
cerning life in moist Tropical climates, that a vast 
amount of mortality and disease has in the past 
been attributed to climate, which was in reality the 
result of defective hygiene and errors in eating and 
drinking. Horsley and Sturge, commenting on the 
building of the Panama Canal through a fatal spot 
on the globe for workers, have written, "There are 
two reasons for this remarkable result; firstly, 
destruction of the mosquito and thereby the re- 
moval of liability to yellow fever and malaria, and 
secondly, abolition of alcohol from the district 
covering a broad strip, five miles wide, on each side 
of the Canal." 

Drs. Castellain and Chalmers, in their recent 
Manual of Tropic Medicine, say that alcohol should 
never be taken in the Tropics till the sun goes down, 
for it unfits the individual for work and is the most 
important, predisposing cause of sunstroke. They 
state that alcohol causes heat exhaustion and these 
facts account for the difference in mortality of ex- 
peditions in which soldiers are allowed to drink it 



ALCOHOL 483 

and those in which they are not. It is well known 
that sunstroke attacks those addicted to alcohol 
much quicker and more disastrously than temperate 
people. Dr. Phillips, of Washington, in "Meteoro- 
logical Conditions of Sunstroke" gives some inter- 
esting results of his investigations, covering 4*65 
cases and 70 fatalities, from which the following 
table has been prepared : 







Fatal 




Sunstroke 


Sunstroke 




Cases 


Cases 


Known Personal Habits, 


Percentage 


Percentage 


Excessive indulgence in Alcohol, 


30 


60 


Moderate indulgence in Alcohol, 


50 


30 



Very temperate indulgence in Alcohol, 

or abstainers, 20 10 



The Swedish investigations of Mernetsch, to 
determine the effect of alcohol upon the soldier 
during manoeuvres, clearly showed that predisposi- 
tion to sunstroke and "heatstroke," was reported 
only among "alcoholic" companies. 

Excessive external heat produces physiological 
effects on the body very similar to those caused by 
alcohol, viz.: dilation of the blood vessels, flushing 
of the skin surface, depression of the heart's action 
and of the nervous system. Horsley and Sturge 
have aptly said that the fatal error in the use of 
alcohol is chiefly due to the non-appreciation of the 
fact that it acts upon the body, with certain limi- 
tations, like a hot sun and consequently one 
dangerous agency simply aggravates the evil effects 
of the other. Rogers tells us that the many cases 
of liver abscess in India are primarily due to alco- 
holism. Eighty years ago liver abscesses were rarely 
found in the natives, but it was frequent among the 



484 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Europeans who had brought to India their alcohol- 
drinking and heavy-eating habits. We are now told 
that liver disease is very common among the natives 
and that 70 per cent, of the cases are traceable to 
alcoholism. It is interesting to note that such dis- 
ease is rare among the females who take but little 
alcohol and among the Mohammedans whose re- 
ligion forbids the use of it. "It is significant that the 
recent development of liver abscess among the 
Hindus coincides with the spread of the use of 
alcohol among them." 

The British Government during the past three 
decades has done effective work to reduce the use of 
alcohol among the soldiers in India and this in the 
interest of efficiency, health, morals, endurance and 
reliability. The following diagram shows the num- 
ber of admissions to the hospitals for alcoholism 
have steadily declined : 



DIAGRAM SHOWING ADMISSIONS TO 
HOSPITALS IN INDIA FOR ALCOHOLISM. 



. 4000 
<ft 

<J 3500 
H 

ft 3000 

12500 
H 2000 
g 1500 
<n 1000 
2 500 



9 





















































































^\ 












>> 


s 



ro- 
coco 

CD 00 



CM<0 
0>O> 
COCO 



r — 

COO) 



CM<0 

oo 

O>0> 



oo> 



SCALE FOR TIME PERIODS. 
Fig. 37 



ALCOHOL 485 

The experience of our armies in the Indian, Mexi- 
can and Civil Wars indicates that spirit rations are 
harmful in cases of exposure, dysentery and 
diarrhoea. Duncan sums up the experience of the 
British Army in its colonies when he says, "Cholera 
ever attacks the intemperate first and cholera pre- 
fers alcohol drinkers." Alcohol, taken habitually 
plays an important role in lowering the resistance of 
the body and especially the defensive power of the 
blood against noxious parasites. If taken habitually 
and immoderately, the evils are naturally greatly 
intensified. The Tropics afford a setting where 
malaria, backwater fever, yellow fever and diseases 
caused by the introduction of potent poisons into 
the body by the stings of infected insects, are preva- 
lent. To combat such diseases the body tone must 
be high, therefore, any agent which tends to reduce 
the power of resistance should be avoided. The 
French authority, Maradro, has truly said, "It has 
been demonstrated that intermittent fevers (mala- 
ria), especially in their pernicious forms are both 
more frequent and more rapidly fatal among those 
who take alcohol than among those who avoid all 
alcoholic drinks." 

In hot climates, alcohol used habitually even 
moderately, or used occasionally to excess, is dele- 
terious to health. It lowers the tone of the system, 
weakens the resistance of the blood to disease, draws 
blood from the internal organs and flushes the skin 
with blood. The similar use of alcohol in very cold 
climates, such as is experienced in the Frigid Zone, 
or during the severe winter in the Temperate Zone, 
is likewise fraught with much danger and has been 
proven conclusively to be opposed to health and 
longevity. One of the main functions of the human 



486 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

skin is the regulation of the body temperature which 
must be controlled with great nicety and this is ac- 
complished by means of the nervous system, which 
causes and regulates variations in the size of the 
blood vessels of the skin, thus permitting much or 
little warm blood to flow to the skin and cause bodily 
heat to escape to the atmosphere. Normal blood 
vessels of the skin normally controlled by a healthy 
and natural mode of life readily respond to the re- 
quirements of the body. "On a warm day these 
vessels dilate and permit a considerable amount of 
blood to come to the surface of the body and thus 
increase the loss of heat, for the air surrounding us 
is nearly always cooler than the body. It follows 
that we give off heat to the atmosphere and that we 
do so more rapidly if our skins are flushed with 
blood. Consequently whenever our skin-vessels are 
dilated and full, the body is cooling and our internal 
temperature is being lowered." In hot climates 
alcohol tends to impoverish the bodily organs and 
inhibit those properties of the blood which destroy 
noxious bacteria and counteract disease, it causes a 
rush of blood to the head and to the skin ; but the air 
breathed, the atmosphere surrounding the body and 
the blood temperatures may all be approximately 
the same and heat exhaustion may result from 
lessened vitality plus faulty circulation. In cold 
climates, however, the effect of alcohol on the blood 
vessels of the skin is most serious for here we are 
confronted with an air intake to the lungs of zero 
or even 50° F. below zero and a skin radiation loss 
due to blood at about 100° F. or say 150° F. above 
the surrounding atmosphere passing off into the 
enveloping extremely cold air. Alcohol under these 
conditions causes an apparent warming of the body 



ALCOHOL 487 

due to the rush of blood to the skin, the heating of 
the surface of the body with possibly some perspira- 
tion; but a quick and pronounced radiation loss is 
experienced, the bodily organs are robbed of blood 
and the body temperature is lowered and rendered 
less efficient in its resistance to outside cold and this 
in addition to the deleterious effect of alcohol upon 
the disease-destroying properties of the blood. Dr. 
John Rae, the Arctic explorer, has said, "The greater 
the cold, the more injurious is the use of alcohol," 
and Sir J. Ross in his "Voyage to the Arctic 
Regions" says, "The most irresistible proof of the 
value of abstinence was when we abandoned our 
ship and were obliged to leave behind us all our 
wine and spirits. It was remarkable to observe how 
much stronger and more able the men were to do 
their work when they had nothing but water to 
drink." Burton in "The Action of Medicines" tells 
us of some Northern Canadians who, when exposed 
to a very severe winter in the woods, destroyed a 
cask of whiskey, "for if it was there, they felt quite 
sure that they would drink it and if they drank it 
they were likely to die." He also tells of a party of 
engineers surveying in the Sierra Nevadas — "They 
camped at a great height, where the air was very 
cold and they were miserable. Some of them drank 
a little whiskey and felt less uncomfortable ; some of 
them drank a lot of whiskey and went to bed feel- 
ing very jolly and comfortable." During the night 
the cold became intense and the weather severe. "In 
the morning the men who had not taken any whiskey 
got up all ris^ht ; those who had taken a little whiskey 
got up feeling very unhappy; the men who had 
taken a great deal of whiskey did not get up at all — 
they were simply frozen to death for they had 



488 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

warmed the surface of their bodies temporarily at 
the expense of their internal organs." 

When Sir Benjamin Richardson in 1866 lectured 
before the British Association that Alcohol actually 
lowered the bodily temperature, he encountered so 
much prejudice of ignorance that his paper was re- 
turned to him for correction before it could be incor- 
porated into the Official Transactions of the Society. 
Prof. Schafer has stated that "Alcohol taken in ordi- 
nary quantities as a beverage causes a slight depres- 
sion, generally less than half a degree in the tempera- 
ture of healthy men; on the other hand, poisonous 
doses may cause a fall of 5° or 6° — in fact many of 
the lowest temperatures recorded have been ob- 
served in drunken persons exposed to the cold." 
Many authorities have stated that a large percent- 
age of the so-called "deaths from exposure" in 
winter weather of civilized countries in the Tem- 
perate Zone could be more truthfully expressed as 
"deaths from alcoholism." 

Dr. Nansen in "The First-Crossing of Green- 
land" writes, "My experience leads me to take a de- 
cided stand against the use of stimulants and 
narcotics of all kinds." 

The greatest drink that one can take to warm and 
brace up the body when subjected to severe cold 
atmospheric conditions is the food drink — hot milk. 
Drugged drinks such as tea and coffee are injurious 
and the only food value which they contain is in the 
sugar, milk or cream placed therein to make them 
palatable. Hot tea is also apt to cause profuse 
perspiration but hot milk while it opens the pores of 
the skin feeds the body, as it is one of nature's prime 
foods ; it will give the sensation of warmth and com- 
fort and in addition feed the blood and save the 



ALCOHOL 489 

organs and blood from the deleterious effect of 
drugs. If hot milk is not procurable, pure hot water 
is preferable to drugged hot waters, and if perspira- 
tion is desired a hot lemonade is preferable to hot 
tea. 

Alcoholic "Tolerance" Varies With Individuals 

The effect of alcohol on an individual is influenced 
very materially by his temperament and constitu- 
tion. Individuals vary in their "tolerance" of 
alcohol, and it is an interesting fact that persons of 
a mental or nervous temperament are more dele- 
teriously affected by alcohol, caffeine and generally 
similar drugs than are persons of a physical or 
phlegmatic temperament. The more highly de- 
veloped and finely tempered a man's nervous sys- 
tem, the more susceptible is his body to the ravages 
of alcohol ; this does not necessarily mean the quicker 
he will become inebriated, for his stomach may 
vigorously protest and decline to receive sufficient 
alcohol to cause, when assimilated, the condition 
known as intoxication. The nervous, mental type 
of man is an easy prey to the physical evils arising 
from the use of alcohol. The motive and vital types 
have a greater degree of tolerance and more con- 
stitutional resistance, particularly if the tempera- 
ment is physical. Men retain and "stand their liquor 
well" according to their mental and nervous develop- 
ment. The man with the low head, heavy jowls 
and thick brutish neck — the physical type — will 
generally stand the effects of much alcohol without 
pronounced constitutional impairment, but the man 
with the high head, triangular face, thin neck and 
relatively light weight — the mental type — is soon 
harmfully affected and has a low degree of tolerance. 






490 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Those qualities in man which make for progress 
and the advance in knowledge and civilization, soon 
succumb to the ravages of alcohol, and it is a re- 
grettable fact that highly organized creatures often 
living a life of mental activity beyond their bodily 
strength, crave the influence of stimulants and nar- 
cotics, the habitual or excessive use of which — 
whether it be alcohol, caffeine or cocaine — will lead 
to a broken constitution and much misery. 

There are men so constituted that they can with- 
stand alcohol very well in moderate doses taken 
habitually or intermittently. Many men who have 
been steady drinkers have lived to a ripe old age, 
but as the world moves onward and the pace and 
stress of life increase, men are becoming more 
mental and nervous ; the survivors in the race, as well 
as the leaders of the world to-day are the men of 
brain rather than of brawn, of top head rather than 
cerebellum and bullish neck; such men, because of 
their mental development and highly tensioned 
nervous system, cannot partake of alcohol or drugs 
habitually or to excess, without having their 
efficiency marred, their working power lessened, 
their lives shortened and their constitutions im- 
paired. 

Alcohol and the Soldier 

At the dedication of the Imperial Naval Academy 
at Murvik in 1910, Kaiser Wilhelm, of Germany, 
said, "The next war, the next naval encounter, will 
require of you sound nerves. These are undermined 
by alcohol, endangered from youth up by its use. 
. . . The nation which drinks the least alcohol 
will be the winner." 

The late Field-Marshal Von Moltke expressed 



ALCOHOL 491 

his general views on this same subject when he said, 
"Beer is a far more dangerous enemy to Germany 
than all the armies of France." 

Every German recruit of the Imperial Navy or 
Army has on his entrance into the service for several 
years been provided with a pamphlet showing the 
connection between alcohol and the military strength 
of the nation. A recent order from the War De- 
partment to the army in the field says : 

"At first alcohol supplies a certain liveliness, but with the 
consumption of larger quantities it causes somnolence. Expe- 
rience teaches that abstinent soldiers can best resist the 
fatigues of war. Besides, the use of alcohol leads to excesses 
and dissoluteness. Alcohol, therefore, is to be used with the 
greatest care, and is to be absolutely avoided on the march. 
For giving warmth it is not to be recommended. The warmth 
which it conveys is entirely deceptive. All in authority are 
requested to pay strict attention to the necessity. of limiting 
its use." 

The deplorable European War has caused several 
of the belligerent nations to pass regulatory or pro- 
hibitory measures in regard to alcohol. Simul- 
taneously with the order for the general mobiliza- 
tion of the Russian troops in the latter days of July, 
1914, went the order to close immediately all vodka, 
wine and beer shops in the Empire, an exception 
being made in the case of first-class restaurants. 
This order was promulgated by Grand Duke 
Nicholas, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian 
forces, and was purely a mobilzation measure to 
prevent disturbances similar to those which accom- 
panied the mobilization for the Japanese war in 
1904. The order was effective until complete 
mobilization should be accomplished. W. E. John- 
son says, "The results of this order were surprising. 



492 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Russia accomplished her mobilization in less than 
one-half the time it was expected to take. The rapid 
mobilization of the Russian forces, made possible by 
the closing of all drinking places, was the first dis- 
appointment to German calculations." The Tsar, 
on August 22, 1914, in response to persistent de- 
mands, ordered that the existing prohibition of the 
sale of vodka and spirits be continued until the 
close of the war, and other rulings have left the sale 
of wine and beer to the decision of the local au- 
thorities, under a sort of local option system. Vodka 
has been found in Russia to be inimical to efficiency, 
hence the Imperial "Ukase" which has practically 
established prohibition. 

Kitchener's first message to the British Troops 
engaged in the present war, cautioned them against 
the evils of alcohol, and later stringent regulatory 
measures relative to alcoholic drinks were adopted in 
Britain. Earl Roberts has said, "Give me a 
temperate army and I will lead it anywhere — thir- 
teen thousand abstainers are equal to fifteen thou- 
sand drinkers." Lord Wolsely said, "Drink kills 
more than our newest weapons of warfare," and 
General Ian Hamilton has asserted that "whiskey 
paralyzes the power and the life of the finest and 
bravest troops in the world." Sir John French, at 
the front, remarked, "Abstinence and self-control 
makes a man more serviceable." Lloyd George, 
battling for efficiency and the desired output from 
the British Munition Factories, in February, 1915, 
said, "Drink is doing more damage in the war than 
all the German submarines put together," and 
speaking as Chancellor of the Exchequer to a 
deputation of the Shipbuilding Employers Federa- 
tion, he said: 



ALCOHOL 493 

"We are fighting Germany, Austria and drink, and, so far 
as I can see, the greatest of these three deadly foes is drink. 
I have a growing conviction, based on accumulating evidence, 
that nothing but root-and-branch methods would be of the 
slightest avail in dealing with the evil. I believe it is the 
general feeling that, if we are to settle with German mili- 
tarism, we must first of all settle with liquor." 

Lieut. Sir Reginald Hart has said, "As an officer 
I support temperance because I know that officers 
and men who avoid drink are physically and men- 
tally more efficient, their nerves are stronger, they 
march better, there is far less sickness and crime, 
their power of resistance is strengthened.' ' It is 
interesting to note that Lord Kitchener in the 
Soudan Campaign, and General Sir Francis Gren- 
f ell in service in Egypt, allowed their men no spirits 
whatever. In the war between Great Britain and the 
Transvaal, the use of spirits was prohibited among 
the Boers, and it was reported that the wonderful 
power of endurance of the Boer army was in great 
part due to their abstinence from strong, spirituous 
drinks. Sir Frederick Treves, reporting on the 
movement of the British Relief Column that reached 
Ladysmith after a most trying experience and 
forced marches in hot weather said, "The first who 
dropped out were not the tall men, or the short men, 
or the big men, or the little men — they were the 
drinkers and they dropped out as clearly as if they 
had been labelled." Admiral Sir J. R. Jellicoe of 
the British Fleet has recently added his testimony 
in the interest of temperance by saying, "As regards 
straight shooting, it is everyone's experience that 
spirituous abstinence is necessary for efficiency. By 
careful and long tests the shooting efficiency of the 
men was proved to be 30 per cent, worse after the 
rum ration than before it." 



494 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Coincident with the mobilization of the British 
troops, at the outbreak of the European war in the 
summer of 1914, the leading English military au- 
thorities issued statements and interviews against 
the use of alcoholic liquors, and the following posters 
were published by the government : 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON NAVAL AND MILITARY 
WORK 



TO ALL MEN SERVING THE EMPIRE. 

It has been proved by tbe most careful 

SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS, 

and completely confirmed by actual experience 

In ATHLETICS and WAR 

as attested by 

FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS, V.C., K.G., K.P., 

FIELD-MARSHAL LORD WOLSELEY, K.P., G.C.B., 

and many other Army Leaders, that 

Alcohol or Drink 

(1) SLOWS the Power to see Signals. 

(2) CONFUSES Prompt Judgment. 

(3) SPOILS Accurate Shooting. 
HASTENS Fatigue. 
LESSENS Resistance to Disease and Exposure. 



(4) 
(5) 
(6) INCREASES Shock from Wounds. 



We therefore most strongly urge you for your own 
Health and Efficiency that at least as long as the War 
lasts you should become 

Total Abstainers. 

(Signed) 
THOMAS BARLOW, M.D., F.R.S., K.C.V.O., 

Pres. Coll. Phys., Physician to H. M. the King. 
FREDERICK TREVES, F.R.C.S., G.C.V.O., 

Hon. Col. R.A.M.C., T.P., Sergeant Surgeon to H.M. the King. 
G. J. H. EVATT, M.D., C.B., Surgeon- General R.A.M.C 
VICTOR HORSLETY, F.R.C.S., F.R.S., Captain R.A.M.C, T.P. 
G. SIMS WOODHEAD, M.D., F.R.S., Lieut.-Ool. R.A.M.C., T.P. 



(BRITISH WAR POSTER.) 



ALCOHOL 495 

The following is a reproduction of a typical 
British War Poster, urging the people in the interest 
of patriotism, power, economy and, therefore, na- 
tional strength and endurance, to abstain from 
alcoholic beverages for the duration of the war : 



THE WAR 



A PATRIOTIC APPEAL 

IS MADE TO 

THE NATION 

To Abstain from Alcoholic Drink During the War 

ON THE GROUND THAT: 

1. THE GRAIN destroyed for their production is re- 

quired for FOOD. 

2. THE MONEY spent upon DRINK will purchase 

many times its value in FOOD. 

3. PHYSICAL POWER depends upon FOOD, and 

must not be destroyed by ALCOHOL. 

4. ALCOHOL lowers vitality and diminishes power 

to resist DISEASE. 

PATRIOTISM 

Demands a whole-hearted response from all classes 
to this appeal. 



(BRITISH WAR POSTER.) 






496 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Item I of the above poster recalls the words of 
Dr. C. J. Saleeby: "The manufacture of whisky is 
the decomposition of food into poison, when food 
supply may decide the fate of freedom." 

Early in the present war, King George and other 
prominent Englishmen voluntarily agreed to ab- 
stain from the use of alcoholic beverages during the 
continuance of hostilities. The Royal Bulletin read 
as follows: 

"By the King's command no wines, spirits or beer will be 
consumed in any of his Majesty's houses after to-day, April 
6, 1915." 

The prime thought behind this much heralded act 
was to set an example to the public and particularly 
to the artisan and laborer. Lord Kitchener and cer- 
tain other national leaders promptly followed the 
Royal announcement by stating that alcohol would 
be excluded from their households. In further re- 
sponse to the King's action, evangelical churches at 
once organized wide-spread pledge-signing, and as 
a result of this movement it is estimated by religious 
bodies, prohibitionists and temperance advocates, 
that about three million people in the British Isles 
followed the King's example. Many prominent 
men, however, including high churchmen, leaders 
and geniuses in diversified fields of activity refused 
to take such a pledge, and it is rather interesting to 
read from a Bulletin issued subsequent to King 
George's fall from his horse : 

"He (the King) is forced, however, during his convalescence 
to break his pledge to abstain from stimulants. His Majesty 
will resume his abstinence when quite restored to health/' 

The latest British Army regulations bearing 
upon the Use of Alcoholic Beverages was issued in 



ALCOHOL 497 

1914 under the official No. 34. This regulation 
reads : 

"On very exceptional occasions, as when the troops have 
been drenched or chilled through exposure of manoeuvres or 
training, a free ration of half a gill of rum (2l^oz.) may, if 
available, be issued under the authority of the G.O.C. when 
certified by the senior medical officer to be absolutely neces- 
sary for safeguarding the health of the troops." 

It is now said that in spite of this Regulation, 
which requires that the rum ration is only to be used 
on "very exceptional occasions" and, therefore, in- 
telligently in a pathological sense, it is now being 
given the troops regularly — a modification which is 
unfortunate from the standpoint of health and 
efficiency. 

Absinthe, which has been designated as the most 
poisonous of all alcoholic beverages, has been pro- 
hibited in France as it was in Belgium, in 1905, 
Switzerland in 1908 and Holland in 1910. The 
French soldier has recently been specifically warned 
against alcohol as the following appeal to the Army 
will show: 

Soldiers — Beware of Alcohol 

"Those who, like you, are exposed to exhausting labor, to 
perilous enterprises, and to strong emotions, are ever inclined 
to look to alcohol as a stimulant and a comforter, and to seek 
for it in the tavern as a distraction from the monotony of 
cantonment and garrison life. 

"It is, therefore, well that you should know what use you 
may make of alcohol without impairing your health. 

"Certain errors about alcohol are wide-spread. 

"1. It is said to give strength. This is not exact. The 
truth is, it gives a false spurt of short duration, but a grave 
diminution of strength never fails to follow this excitement. 
Thus alcohol takes away more strength than it gives. 

"2. It is also said that alcohol gives warmth. This is true 
for a few minutes, but the feeling of warmth which spreads 
over the limbs after a nip of brandy is delusive and is soon 



498 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

followed by a lessening of warmth and strength. Men who 
take nips are far more subject to chills and to diseases to which 
men at the front are liable. 

"3. It is further asserted that in the form of a 'pick-me-up/ 
alcohol stimulates the appetite. This is quite wrong. It would 
be difficult to produce any man whose appetite had ever been 
really stimulated by a 'pick-me-up.' These aperitifs, habitually 
taken, lead without fail to disease of the stomach, liver, and 
mind. 

"4. Lastly, it is maintained that alcohol taken during meals, 
as wine, beer, or cider, aids digestion. An important distinction 
must be drawn between 'distilled' liquors like brandy and 'fer- 
mented' liquors such as wine, cider, and beer. Alcohol is alto- 
gether noxious. The petit verre after meals should only be 
taken on rare occasions. Fermented liquors, on the other hand, 
may be drunk subject to two conditions. They must be con- 
sumed in great moderation, which, as regards wine, should 
never exceed one liter (a pint and three-quarters) in twenty- 
four hours, and only at meals." 

The preamble and the first three paragraphs of 
this appeal were adopted, we are told, by the 
Academy of Medicine in Paris, without controversy, 
but the fourth paragraph, in which a distinction is 
drawn between distilled and fermented beverages, 
was the subject of much discussion. As originally 
proposed it appears that the paragraph contained 
after "aids digestion" the words "this is true," and 
these words were finally omitted. The original 
draft did not contain, apparently, the last half of 
paragraph 4 but merely stated that fermented 
beverages might be useful. 

Despite the estimate of abstinence in regard to 
alcohol as promotive of war efficiency, expressed by 
the German Emperor in his Murvik address, we 
learn that the only German Regulatory Measures in 
regard to alcoholic beverages are those prompted 
for economic reasons, such as the order limiting the 
quantity of hops which may be used in the manu- 
facture of beer. Kaiser Wilhelm deprecates the use 



ALCOHOL 499 

of alcohol by the German fighting forces, but the 
German soldier is allowed 1,793 grams of beer and 
20 grams of brandy per day, which is equivalent to 
70.7 grams of actual alcohol daily, and the German 
Imperial Chancellor, Dr. Von Bethmann Hollweg 
said in reference to the Alcohol Prohibition Move- 
ment, and particularly as exploited in America, "A 
movement of that sort would make no headway in 
Germany. The people would regard it as an abso- 
lutely unwarranted interference with their personal 
liberty.' ' Germany has the most efficient and at the 
same time the most centralized form of government 
which now exists, yet we are told that her people, 
dominated by despotic militarism and autocratic 
paternalism, would refuse interference affecting 
their personal habits and liberty along lines which 
many Americans, boasting of their democracy and 
freedom, consider quite proper for State or Federal 
Prohibition Legislation. 

Alcohol in the Navy 

The recent controversy between Secretary of the 
Navy Daniels, and Rear Admiral Fiske in regard to 
the Daniels "Wine Mess" order, has shown in an 
interesting manner the fanaticism of the impractical 
prohibitionist and the views of the experienced 
Naval officer, who voiced the opinions of "more than 
95 per cent, of the officers of the Navy, including 
many officers who are total abstainers and not ex- 
cluding chaplains of experience." Admiral Fiske 
states that the evil effects of the abolition of the 
"canteen" in the Army are well known and an 
official attempt at absolute prohibition on board 
ship and at Naval Stations would be a serious mis- 
take. Admiral Fiske is an advocate of the moderate 



500 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

and occasional use of wine and beer on board ship 
for those who desire it. Spirituous liquors — with 
large alcoholic content — have been forbidden on the 
ships of the Navy since 1863. Before the Daniels 
Prohibition Order went into effect, an enlisted man 
was allowed one bottle of beer, but only one, if 
taken with his dinner. Admiral Fiske says, "I have 
never known a case of drunkenness aboard ship due 
directly to the beer or wine mess." He also is of 
the opinion that there are certain temperaments 
which seem to desire or crave some narcotic, which 
are satisfied with mild alcoholic beverages taken at 
opportune times and in a way that does not seem to 
detract in any degree from their efficiency; if such 
men are deprived of an occasional comparatively 
harmless drink, they will when the opportunity for 
taking stronger and more harmful drinks presents 
itself, avail themselves of it and most probably in- 
dulge in strong alcoholic liquors to excess. "An- 
other effect," says Admiral Fiske is, "an increased 
temptation to use cocaine and other drugs. This 
danger is real — not imaginary. Many people crave 
stimulants of some sort and if they cannot get what 
they prefer, will take anything they can get. 
Cocaine takes up little space and is very convenient. 
Its use among enlisted men has increased since they 
were prohibited the daily bottle of beer." The 
records of the Navy show that during the years im- 
mediately before and after the Daniels "Wine 
Mess" order went into effect, the number of con- 
victions for drunkenness was the same. The order 
did not reduce excessive drinking — it probably much 
increased it and it did a most deplorable thing in en- 
couraging officers who desired some alcohol to con- 
ceal spirits or drugs in their rooms, exercise deceit 



ALCOHOL 501 

and partake "on the quiet" — the first pronounced 
step in depravity and a phase of dishonesty which 
is allied with and may drift into more vicious forms 
of falseness. But there is another phase which 
affects the manhood and liberty of the individual. 
"To hold our officers up to the country as a body of 
men lacking in self-control would be to strike di- 
rectly at their dignity as men and lower their pride 
in themselves and there calling. The enthusiasm 
and cheerful obedience necessary to the best ef- 
ficiency have never been attained by such methods — 
they may be relied upon for initiative and zeal if 
their pride in themselves is not weakened." 

Russian Vodka 

One-fourth of the entire revenue of the Imperial 
Russian Government was practically wiped out as a 
result of the far-reaching effects of the recent 
Ukase, and the Tsar's public declaration that he has 
"decided to abolish forever the Government sale of 
vodka in Russia," for "We cannot make our fiscal 
prosperity dependent upon the destruction of the 
spiritual and economic powers of many of my sub- 
jects." This does not necessarily mean that pro- 
hibition of the vodka traffic in Russia is to be made 
permanent, but it does mean that the Government 
traffic in the same is at an end. The death warrant 
of one of the most blighting and soul-destroying 
monopolies the world has ever known, has apparently 
been executed. It is not pleasing to say that the 
deplorable, unnecessary and inane war now waging 
in Europe can be productive of any good, but we 
are compelled to affirm that the war has brought 
about some good to the toilers and peasant classes 
of Russia by the removal of the curse, not so much 



502 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



of vodka, as of vodka exploitation and tax collect- 
ing. The collection of the Russian Spirit Tax was 
let by contract to tax farmers! whose profits de- 
pended upon the amount of spirits consumed in 
their district. As a result, these tax farmers en- 
couraged the vodka habit among the peasants and 
there were not wanting instances of the police be- 
laboring peasants because they would not get drunk. 
An instance is related by Pigott in his book on 
" Savage and Civilized Russia" where the police 
stood over the peasants in a public house and by 
force of blows compelled them to buy and drink 
spirits. The exasperated peasants finally, drink 
crazed, demolished the building, but the Government 
ordered that no notice be taken officially of the 
incident. 

"The tax farmer lays on a great addition to the legal price 
of the spirit; and to secure connivance he bribes all the local 
officials. To repay himself the expenditure of hundreds of 
thousands a year in bribes and to make the people drink as 
much vodka as they would if it bore the legal price, all con- 
ceivable devices of intimidation and seduction are employed to 
get a certain quantity of liquor down men's throats, and up in 
score against them. There are no fouler nests of crime than 
Russian public houses; laws and ordinances never enter them. 
The collectors of the vodka duty keep the police in their pay; 
and the police never interfere when the sale of liquor is going 
on." 

Vodka in Russia literally means "Little Water," 
and has a contemptuous and sinister meaning. The 
consumption of spirits in Russia during the last 
year of the monopoly aggregated 354,141,000 
American gallons, and there were in existence in 
1912, 2,983 distilleries. Russian statistics showed 
that for each thousand people there were 266.9 
deaths of children under one year old, 582 under five 



ALCOHOL 503 

years and 629 under ten years of age, — a ghastly 
record of infant and child mortality ! 

In a paper read at Milan, Italy, in September, 
1913, Nicholas de Cramer showed that in the year 
1906 there was one registered drunkard to 16,962 
inhabitants in Paris, to 1,020 inhabitants in Vienna, 
to 329 inhabitants in Berlin and to 25 inhabitants in 
Petrograd. In the Government of Pskov, investi- 
gation showed that 83 per cent, of the boys in the 
schools and 68 per cent, of the girls drank vodka. 
In Moscow these figures were 66 and 45 per cent, 
respectively ; in the Government of Saratov 79 and 
48.5 per cent, and in the schools of Ekaterinodar 63 
per cent, of the children were users of vodka. 
School children were also employed in the dis- 
tilleries in Russia and in many cases their wages 
were partly paid with vodka. In Krapvensk where 
the public school and the state distillery are in very 
close proximity, the number of children receiving 
vodka for their work was 55 per cent, of the number 
of pupils in the school. 

The Russian Minister of Finance recently said, 
"Notwithstanding the depressing and paralyzing 
effect of the war, the Russian peasant class is more 
prosperous than at any previous time in the history 
of the country. . . . instead of feeling any 
privation . . . the people are beginning to re- 
gard the war as a peculiar sort of godsend which is 
putting money into their pockets. . . . It is 
the prohibition of the sale of vodka which is prim- 
arily responsible for the ameliorated conditions of 
the peasant. The sieve through which all the avail- 
able earnings formerly disappeared has now been 
closed and the money is either spent for present 
necessities or is saved for future wants." M. Bark 



504 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

should have gone further and said that the Russian 
Government, in the interest of National Safety, had 
been forced, because of the war with its economic 
problems and the deplorable conditions of the lower 
and agricultural classes, to abandon their despic- 
able, vicious system of raising revenue with vodka 
and thus sacrificing the health, morals and pros- 
perity of the people through their coercive and 
tyrannical methods. The Russian peasantry are 
happier and more prosperous than ever before be- 
cause they are enjoying a little of the fruits of 
freedom and experiencing less of the horrors of a 
despotism that seemed to glory in keeping the lower 
classes poor, ignorant and drunk. The Russian 
Vodka Ukase was the abolition of a depraved form 
of slavery and with the reduced consumption of 
strong spirits, it has increased the producing power 
of the people and stimulated their loyalty. It is 
also possible now to raise armies, enforce discipline 
and make soldiers. Was not the Russian autocracy 
fearful of vodka breeding mutiny among the armed 
and oppressed forces of the Empire? There were 
many reasons other than the true welfare of the 
public that caused Grand Duke Nicholas, Com- 
mander of the Russian Troops, to expel vodka from 
his military jurisdiction, and the Tsar to sancti- 
moniously announce later the suspension of Gov- 
ernment manufacture and sale of vodka. The sav- 
ings deposited in one month are now said to be 50 
per cent, more than the average yearly savings 
during the period when the Government squeezed 
its revenue from the suffering poor and ignorant by 
forcing them, through the medium of a diabolical 
tax-collecting system, to drink excessively a poison- 
ous decoction which the law stipulated could not be 



ALCOHOL 505 

sold unless it contained at least 40 per cent, of 
alcohol. 

The Russian Ukase affecting vodka and strong 
spiritous liquors, will save the people, it is esti- 
mated, about a billion dollars per year. No wonder 
Mr. Scherbatskoy of the Russian Embassy at 
Washington recently remarked with enthusiasm, 
"Its benefits (Vodka Ukase) have exceeded even 
the most sanguine expectations — the benefits from 
the policy are great enough to completely com- 
pensate for the loss of the revenue many times 
over." And Lloyd George has said, "By suppress- 
ing the sale of alcoholic liquors, Russia has increased 
the productivity of her labors by something between 
30 and 50 per cent." 

How deplorable the conditions of society must 
be in some lands, when freedom from a Government 
curse can only be obtained when the workings of 
governmental depravity in an unprecedented emer- 
gency are conspicuously seen to rob men of soldierly 
essentials, undermine the military and economic 
strength of the nation and make a tremendous 
Empire vulnerable, with feet of clay. 

Various Kinds of Alcohol 

The alcohol found in beer, wine and spirits is 
ethyl alcohol (common or grain alcohol). It con- 
tains 52.67 parts of carbon, 12.90 parts of hydrogen 
and 32.43 parts of oxygen, and is made by ferment- 
ing a sugar solution with yeast in the presence of 
nitrogenous substances. When the proportion of 
pure alcohol in fermented liquors becomes 13.5 per 
cent., its poisonous quality kills the yeast plant 
which produces it and stronger liquors must be pro- 
duced by distillation. There are other kinds of 



506 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

alcohol but with the exception of methyl, or wood 
alcohol, they are mainly of interest as impurities of 
the preparations of ethyl alcohol which they all re- 
semble in their general effects but differ from in 
toxicity. Propyl alcohol is more powerful than 
ethyl, butyl than propyl and amyl than any of them. 
Amyl alcohol, or fusel oil, is present in small quan- 
tities in most forms of spirits and is extremely dele- 
terious and poisonous. 

Many serious cases of poisoning have been re- 
ported as a result of the wilful or ignorant use of 
methyl (wood) alcohol as a substitute for ethyl 
alcohol. Methyl alcohol intoxicates but its action is 
slower than ethyl and the depression or narcotic 
condition more prolonged. It is not, however, 
readily excreted and fully oxidized; its products in 
the body are formic acid and formaldehyde and it is 
thought that these substances, or perhaps acetone 
and other bodies always present in the commercial 
article, may account for its especially deleterious 
effects which are apt to lead to atrophy of the optic 
nerve with permanent blindness and depression of 
cardiac and voluntary muscles, resulting in death. 
Many cases of severe illness, blindness and death 
have been known when the wood alcohol of com- 
merce has been taken by men deprived of the use of 
alcoholic beverages, and many cases have been re- 
ported where cheap vicious spirits made with methyl 
alcohol have been sold by unscrupulous manufac- 
turers and dealers. After one celebration on 
doctored spirits at Dorpat, Russia, 16 men and one 
woman died and 3 men became blind. At Stryker's 
Farm, near New York, 25 died from drinking a 
cheap whiskey made of methyl alcohol. In the 
Berlin Municipal Lodging House, during Decern- 



ALCOHOL 507 

ber, 1911, there were 70 sudden deaths due to wood 
alcohol in cheap spirits. Buller and Wood collected 
the records of 54 cases of blindness in this country, 
some of which ended fatally, due to the use of 
methyl alcohol. Deaths from wood alcohol have 
usually followed debauches with adulterated 
whiskey, and spirits of this type are common in pro- 
hibition territories. Many instances of severe 
poisoning and blindness have come from the drink- 
ing of hair-tonics, bay-rum, cologne waters, essence 
of ginger and other pharmaceuticals in which wood 
alcohol has been substituted for ethyl alcohol. A 
large number of pharmaceutic preparations con- 
tain alcohol either as a solvent or preservative, 
and certain proprietary remedies with a large con- 
tent of alcohol have tremendous sales. Such liquids 
are often taken as an alcoholic drink in states where 
alcoholic beverages are not readily obtainable, and 
Bastedo says, "Women habitues frequently drink 
in secret and many consume large quantities of eau 
de-cologne, Florida waters, witch-hazel or some 
proprietary medicine." 

The Prohibition Movement 

The Prohibition Movement in the United States 
is a somewhat hysterical un-American Movement. 
It is opposed in principle to the Constitution of our 
country. L. Ames Brown truly says, "The typical 
American will be slow to forget the lessons of the 
growth of our liberty nor will he be willing, for a 
purpose not well weighed, to abandon anything of 
the progress we have made. He is not likely to 
overlook the fact, that in asking the Federal Gov- 
ernment (or the State) to compel moral and 
physical well-being through prohibition, the country 



508 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

will be turning back to the older idea of government 
to which the democratic ideal offered its thrilling 
challenge some two centuries ago. A doctrine of 
salvation through the removal (or hiding) of 
temptation, of righteousness made possible by lack 
of opportunity for sinning, such as the Prohibition 
Movement represents, never has been typical of the 
American character. Rather have we believed that 
the robust tone of our national character was achiev- 
able only through the resistance of those elements 
which assailed it. American character has no nega- 
tive quality. Established superiority to hardships 
and temptation has been its most admired attribute. 
The philosophy of sinless isolation has had few pro- 
tagonists among us. One way to a sinless life lies 
through the cloister. Some close resemblance to 
this is borne by the prohibition of temptation. " 

Prohibition is not the remedy which we should 
attempt to apply to intemperance. Measures and 
propaganda to combat the evil effects of alcohol 
should be chosen that are more effective and more 
consistent with our fundamental ideas of democracy 
and freedom. The saloon will be eliminated, drunk- 
enness will be reduced and temperance or abstin- 
ence, with increased human efficiency, will be 
achieved by education and regulatory measures in 
harmony with the tradition and ideals of democratic 
individualistic government. In our Prohibition 
States, alcoholism persists and this often with ac- 
companying increased degeneracy — deceit, drugs, 
vile and strong liquor and excessive drinking when 
the opportunity for imbibing presents itself. There 
is less drunkenness and vicious intoxication in many 
of our "wide-open," large cities than exists, con- 
sidering the population numerically, in many of our 



ALCOHOL 509 

Prohibition districts, countries and states. New 
York City is far more temperate than it was even a 
decade ago. A down-town business lunch without 
alcohol in some form or other was unusual two 
decades ago; now such a lunch with alcohol is as 
unusual and conspicuous as it used to be common. 
This gradual change is the result of diffusive knowl- 
edge which has carried the conviction to business 
minds that alcohol is a lessener of efficiency and a 
man can perform better work without it. The 
American Movement looking toward efficiency, with 
scientific investigations showing the relation of 
cause and effect and not the semi-religious Move- 
ment, with the pulpit serving as the prohibitionists' 
stump, is the cause of increasing temperance among 
our thinking citizens. 

According to available British figures, the mor- 
tality attributed to alcoholism reached its highest 
during the period 1896 to 1900 when 106.2 men per 
million and 66.6 women per million suffered death 
from alcoholic excesses. These figures were re- 
duced a decade later (1906 to 1910) 37.3 per cent, 
for men and 34.5 per cent, for women, without 
legislation or any serious prohibition propaganda 
other than that of education. Prior to the war it is 
said that additional steady gains were being made in 
the interest of temperance and teetotalism. 

Sane regulation will handle the question of 
alcohol out in the open, but Prohibition drives it to 
the under world of vice, deception, law-breaking, 
drug-taking and moral death. We need con- 
servatism in dealing with the questions affecting our 
life and liberty lest our habit of forming hasty con- 
clusions, our passion to reform our neighbors, and 
our tendency to make new and absurd laws pro- 



510 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

lifically and with hysterical speed, rob us of our 
boasted democracy and that freedom and liberty 
which is the foundation of our Great Republic and 
the true cause of our National growth and pros- 
perity. 

For many years the Prohibitionists have waged 
aggressive warfare in this country "to make the map 
all white" and viewed from almost any angle, it 
must be admitted that while their efforts have been 
spectacularly successful in adding territory to their 
"white" domain, they have not succeeded in ma- 
terially reducing the "drink evil" or of enforcing 
prohibition and making it effective. Over 77 per 
cent, of the area of our land, represented by 19 
states, is now "dry" and 50.7 per cent, of our people 
are living under prohibition laws, and yet in the last 
decade the consumption of alcoholic beverages in 
this country has increased 13 per cent, per person 
and 33 per cent, in aggregate quantity. Each per- 
son on an average drinks about twice as much 
alcohol as was consumed per capita three decades 
ago. 

The total consumption of alcoholic liquors in the 
United States as shown by the Official Statistical 
Abstract during the past few years is as follows : 

Total Consumption 

Year in Gallons Per Capita 

1909 1,935,544,011 21.06 

1910 2,045,353,420 22.19 

1911 2,169,356,975 22.79 

1912 2,128,452,226 21.98 

1913 2,233,420,461 22.68 

1914 2,252,272,765 22.50 

If prohibition were effective the consumption of 
alcohol in this country should have been reduced 



ALCOHOL 511 

50 per cent, with one-half of its people living under 
prohibition laws. The American Prohibition Year 
Book for 1916, published by the Prohibition Na- 
tional Committee, admits that, "In spite of the 'white 
map' the liquor problem is diminishing neither in 
size, importance nor complexity. Considered from 
the standpoint of the area of territory legally 'dry' 
and the number of people living under prohibition 
laws, the methods so far widely used have been 
reasonably successful; but considered from the 
standpoint of offering a real solution of the problem, 
that is, decreasing the consumption of liquor, 
diminishing the corrupting power and influence of 
the traffic — these methods have been a failure. 3 ' 
( The italics are mine. ) 

The same official book says, "The 1915 statis- 
tics show a greater consumption of liquor practically 
equal to that of any previous year of our history. 
The latest available government reports show 
greater investments of money and more men em- 
ployed in the liquor business and allied industries 
than any statistics heretofore published." • 

A telegraphic Press item from Washington, 
dated May 13, 1916, says, "Notwithstanding the 
fact that prohibition laws have become effective in 
seven states since July 1, 1915, approximately 
7 r 500,000 gallons more whiskey have been used in 
the United States so far during this fiscal year, 
ending June 30, than ever before. Returns to the 
Internal Revenue Bureau approximate the total in- 
crease for the year at 10,000,000 gallons." During 
the same period the consumption of beer has been 
somewhat reduced, but the total consumption of 
alcohol for the year will most probably exceed that 
of the preceding year. Prohibition laws apparently 



512 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



tend to increase the consumption of alcoholic bever- 
ages of high alcohol content, such as whiskey, and 
reduce that of the less harmful and milder drinks. 
The report of the Committee on Temperance of The 
General Presbyterian Assembly, May, 1911, says, 
"When all allowances are made for false and 
garbled statements, deliberate falsehoods, and mis- 
leading charges, the fact remains that there is an 
alarming increase in the use of alcoholic liquors in 
the United States as a whole. Only harm can result 
from deceiving the public by charts which indicate a 
rapid advance in temperance legislation and by 
boastful statements about making 'the map all 
white' while we are doing nothing of the kind." It 
is also ridiculous for prohibitionists to submit 
figures to show the lessening of crime, poverty, 
divorce and insanity in prohibition states as com- 
pared with licensed states. Present figures cannot 
be comparative with the past, for the world is ad- 
vancing in knowledge, and disease is being com- 
bated more successfully by science. Poverty bears 
some relation to local and state prosperity and 
all physical and moral perversion are influenced 
by environment and the nature and hereditary 
stock of the inhabitants. Particularly in the West 
and the sections of the country now being "opened 
up" and developed, and in large manufacturing 
centers where unskilled labor is largely employed, 
the nature of the population changes rapidly. 
The calibre of the immigrant and the extent of 
the locating of new settlers materially affect the 
nature and mode of life of a community. Gov- 
ernment statistics show that 14.7 per cent, of our 
population are foreign-born, and an additional 
20.5 per cent, are native-born of foreign parentage. 



ALCOHOL 513 

Of the foreign stock — if such a term can be 
used in a nation of Mixed Races, dependent from 
the first upon immigration for its existence — 69 
per cent, live in the cities and towns. Our white 
male population, age 21 and over, in 1910, was 41 
per cent, foreign-born, or of foreign or mixed 
parentage. This is equivalent to 73 per cent, of the 
total vote for President in 1912. 

The native white population of native parentage 
in the United States is only 53.8 per cent, of the 
entire population. The states with the largest pro- 
portion of their population foreign-born are : 



Rhode Island 


33 


per 


cent 


Massachusetts 


31.5 


" 


«< 


New York 


30.2 


*t 


tt 


Connecticut 


29.6 


n 


a 


North Dakota 


27.1 


n 


tt 


Minnesota 


26.2 


" 


tt 


Montana 


25.2 


it 


tt 



The rural population of the country represents 
53.6 per cent, of the total, the extreme relationship 
between Rural and Urban population being repre- 
sentated by : 

Percentage of Population 
State Rural 

North Dakota 89. ) Maximum 

Mississippi 88.5) Rural 

Connecticut 10.3] M . . 

Massachusetts 7.2 1- „ , 

Rhode Island 3.3J 

The immigration to this country during a century 
represents, in the aggregate, about 35 per cent, of 
the present population. During the fourteen years 
preceding the outbreak of the present war, the 
immigration of Europeans to the United States 



514 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

equalled the combined population of the New Eng- 
land, the Pacific Coast and the Rocky Mountain 
states — 13,255,207 people. As many as 1,285,349 
immigrants have entered this country within one 
year, and the figure of 1,000,000 was exceeded in 
the years 1905-6-7-10 and 13. In this great "melt- 
ing pot" of a nation, all nationalities, races, re- 
ligions, belief s and habits of life and modes of living 
can be found. There are 49 distinct religious de- 
nominations in this country and these are divided 
into 173 different and separate bodies with about 
37,000,000 communicants. No one can estimate the 
effect of religious teaching upon the lives and habits 
of a people. America is a land of all climates, 
torrid, frigid and temperate; of all altitudes, low 
and flat, high plateau and montainous; much land 
is fertile and well watered and much is arid; some 
sections have moderate variations of seasons and 
some are subjected to extreme variations of climate 
as expressed by temperatures, rain or snow fall and 
sunshine. With such extreme differences in nature's 
setting and such diversified characteristics of its 
population, together with the ever moving human 
current peculiar to a New Land, it is absurd to 
make comparisons of the habits or morals of the 
inhabitants of different states, districts or cities. 
The bodily appetite for liquid is affected by tem- 
peratures and humidity, general environment and 
working conditions. The palat ability and avail- 
ability of pure, cool, refreshing water has a pro- 
nounced bearing on how the natural physical thirst 
will be satisfied. Physical health is also affected in 
no uncertain way by the natural adaptability of an 
individual to his environment; many a constitution 
is being undermined and forced to the condition 



ALCOHOL 515 

where it craves stimulants or narcotics because of 
the lack of harmony between a person's hereditary- 
physical endowment and a climatic or geographical 
setting, to successfully cope with which the body was 
never created. No animal body can be modified or 
revamped except through the progeny of many gen- 
erations, by the working of the inexorable law of 
natural selection and evolution operating through 
thousands of years. Education which will teach 
people where to live as well as how to live will do 
more for temperance and the advance of physical 
and moral health than all the semi-religious alcoholic 
campaigns and propaganda ever conceived or ex- 
ploited. 

Prohibition Not the Solution of Alcoholism 

History and true comparative statistics will 
verify the assertion that prohibition never reduces 
the extent of drunkenness nor suppresses the real 
evil of alcohol. The moral, financial, economic, 
physical or mental conditions of the people of a pro- 
hibition state are not on any higher plane than those 
which obtain in a licensed state populated by similar 
people living under identical similar conditions. On 
the contrary, "not only does the prohibition state 
harbor all the ills which flow from overindulgence in 
alcoholic drink but also many others which result 
from the use of inferior liquors and drugs." Many 
states have tried prohibition and have rejected it. 
Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, 
Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hamp- 
shire, New York and Pennsylvania are among the 
states which at one time adopted prohibition laws, 
but all of them abandoned these laws after a short 
time except Maine and in that state we have a glar- 



516 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

ing exhibition of the hypocrisy of prohibition. Not 
the slightest pretense is made in many parts of 
Maine to enforce the prohibition law, and when the 
authorities are periodically active, the secret dive, 
"Kitchen Bar" and "blind tiger" are prevalent in 
all their viciousness, and at the last election it was 
proved that there is no true majority in Maine in 
favor of prohibition, notwithstanding the advant- 
ages gained by the prohibitionists in waging war- 
fare through the churches and religious organiza- 
tions. Every political campaign in the state of 
Maine has for one of its prominent questions the 
failure to enforce prohibition, and Maine's foremost 
citizens have vehemently denounced the law as a 
sham and a fraud. 

Kansas is the model state of the prohibitionists 
and it is "model" because only 29.2 per cent, of its 
population is urban ; there are no cities exceeding 
100,000 inhabitants; 71.4 per cent, of its people are 
native whites, born of native white parents ; only 8.6 
per cent, of its population is foreign born, and out 
of 1,690,949 inhabitants in 1910 only 44,215 were 
wage earners engaged in manufacture. We find 
that in Topeka, the Capital, with 47,102 people 
(1914) there were 661 arrests for drunkenness dur- 
ing the year, and the Prohibitionist Advocate boasts 
that only 6,250,000 gallons of alcoholic beverages, 
valued at $5,304,000 were consumed in Kansas dur- 
ing the year and not even druggists were permitted 
to dispense alcohol. Add to this the fact that the 
government records show that alcoholic drinks were 
manufactured within the state and many hundreds 
of dealers paid for Federal Licenses (766 on June 
30, 1914) , and prohibition within the "Model State" 
must be admitted as a travesty. There is, moreover, 



ALCOHOL 517 

a darker and more vicious side of the question, for 
alcohol in many forms was consumed in the aggre- 
gate within the state to an extent many times ex- 
ceeding the estimates of the prohibition enthusiasts 
and this was taken deceitfully in many forms, some 
deplorably injurious, and in many places — some the 
worst forms of dives. 

Wm. H. Hirsh in an address before the Joint 
Committee of the Legislature of the State of New 
York said : 

"The mysterious workings of prohibition are amusingly and 
yet shamefully disclosed by the enactments which made Georgia 
a prohibition State. By one Act the laws of Georgia pro- 
vide that it shall be unlawful within the limits of the State to 
manufacture, sell or offer for sale, keep for sale, barter, fur- 
nish or keep on hand at a place of business or at any social, 
fraternal or locker club, alcoholic liquors in any quantity. By 
another and supplementary act it is provided that a person 
may receive, accept delivery of, possess and have at one time, 
or within a period of 30 consecutive days the following quan- 
tities of alcoholic liquor: (1) 1 gallon of vinous liquor, (2) 6 
gallons of malted liquors or fermented liquors, such as beer, 
lager beer, ale, porter, etc., (3) 2 quarts of spirituous liquors 
or other intoxicating liquors. In other words, the prohibition 
laws of the State of Georgia provide that each individual may 
import for use each year 6 gallons of whiskey, gin or rum, 12 
gallons of wine and 72 gallons of beer, ale or porter. That is, 
in this prohibition State, the law permits its inhabitants to 
have per capitum 4> times as much whiskey, 19 times as much 
wine and 3% times as much beer as is consumed by the aver- 
age of the population of the United States. This is indeed a 
striking admission of the inefficacy and absurdity of prohibi- 
tion. The mere presentation of the situation worked out by 
the law makers of Georgia is a complete acknowledgment that 
prohibition is not expected to prohibit. 

"The experience of half a century shows that all efforts to 
enforce prohibition laws have proven futile and fruitless. 



518 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

Liquor is dispensed in all States where prohibition laws exist, 
and crime, pauperism and insanity have been just as prevalent 
in those States as in States where it is sold under license, and 
according to statistics, in some instances more so. The pro- 
hibition State suffers the tremendous disadvantage of losing 
the great revenue which is derived under the license system, 
and also the control over the traffic which results in enforcing 
a license law." 

Mr. Hirsh also asserted that prohibition legisla- 
tion is wrong, being founded on false principles, and, 
moreover, its advocates are striving through theories 
to attain what is a practical impossibility. Sumpt- 
uary laws do not furnish the solution for the faults 
of society. They may interfere with the personal 
habits of man, embarrass and annoy him and under 
certain conditions function to his detriment and not 
as hoped to his benefit, but they can never make the 
foolish wise, the feeble strong, the wicked virtuous 
nor the toper abstemious. American liberty ends 
where arbitrariness begins. "If America is to con- 
tinue a republic, its people must avoid too much per- 
sonal government and not depart from the tradi- 
tions and principles of old which left every man 
free to make the most of his life with a minimum 
of interference from government authority." 

Koren has truthfully said that there are no legal 
formulae by which men can be made sober. "The 
prohibition doctrine of coercion has failed because 
it postulates that the habits and appetites of man- 
kind are amenable to regulation after the manner 
of some inanimate mechanism; and mistaken at- 
tempts at wholesale reform entail more social 
breakage than salvage." The final element in con- 
sidering the relation of prohibition to government is 
how its non-enforcement affects the public mind. 



ALCOHOL 519 

In the report of the investigation of the Committee 
of Fifty we read, "There have been concomitant 
evils of prohibitory legislation. The efforts to en- 
force it during forty years past have had some un- 
looked-for effects on public respect for courts, 
judicial procedures, oaths and law in general, and 
for officers of the law, leglislators and public serv- 
ants. The public has seen law defied, a whole gen- 
eration of habitual law breakers schooled in evasion 
and shamelessness, courts ineffective through fluctu- 
ations of policy, delays, perjuries, negligences and 
other miscarriages of justice, officers of the law 
double-faced and mercenary, legislators timid and 
insincere and candidates for office hypocritical and 
truckling and officeholders unfaithful to pledges 
and to reasonable public expectations. Through an 
agitation which has always had a moral end, these 
immoralities have been developed and made con- 
spicuous." 

Arizona now proudly claims to have taken the 
highest moral stand of any state that has passed a 
Prohibition Law, in debarring the use, sale, manu- 
facture or importation of spirituous liquor for any 
purpose whatsoever. Monahan commenting on this 
un-American law has said, "There are indeed some 
persons who take the view that, in so enacting, 
Arizona entitled herself to the Booby Prize; and it 
certainly has advertised her peculiar brand of states- 
manship to the world at large." Aside from the 
great need of alcohol at times for pathological pur- 
poses it is supposedly an indispensable element for 
sacramental purposes in certain churches. A 
Catholic priest writes to the Fortnightly Review of 
St. Louis that his colleagues will be obliged to dis- 
continue saying mass or take the risk of obtaining 



520 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

wine surreptitiously. Arizona apparently believes 
that the Roman Catholics should get along with 
grape juice or some soda fountain decoction and 
some religious enthusiasts believe that the law was 
drawn with malice prepense to harass the Catholics 
— a curious object lesson of American liberty and 
toleration. 

Expert lawyers believe that the Arizona Dry 
Law is violative of the religious liberty guaranteed 
by our constitution and so the Bishop of Tucson 
proposes to take the question to the highest courts. 
"That he may succeed," one of our greatest literati 
and true temperance advocates has said, "is the hope 
of all who hate to see a sovereign state turned over 
to the control of a set of fanatics and deeply 
muddled millenarians." No people in the world 
prate so much about liberty as we Americans and 
none are so apt to abuse it. Arizona is the head- 
quarters for the fanatics who maintain that Christ 
in His first recorded miracle turned water not into 
wine as the Bible (which they claim to unfalteringly 
and absolutely believe) distinctly says, but into un- 
fermented, non-alcoholic grape juice. The hysteri- 
cal mania of self-professed religious people to 
strive, agitate and legislate for what they are 
pleased to term righteousness is being decidedly 
overdone, and when such activities affect the liberty 
of a conscientious American of broader or merely 
different views, they tend to rob him of his most 
cherished and inalienable right. 

Education the Solution of Alcoholism 

The habitual or excessive use of alcohol is costly. 
The consumption of alcohol is a source of great 
revenue to the nations but the cost is in men — in 



ALCOHOL 521 

their shortened lives, increased suffering and 
lessened efficiency. Alcohol is of much use in the 
world but its improper, habitual or excessive use as 
a beverage is one of humanity's greatest curses. 
Sentimentalists cannot cope with the evil and the 
law has failed and will continue to fail to do so. 
The solution of the problem lies only along lines of 
intelligent education and scientific helpfulness, freed 
from all bias and the hysterics which are generally 
associated with the prohibition and similar semi- 
religious and reform movements of to-day. 

Those who persist in maintaining that alcoholics 
must be treated as criminals are so ignorant and 
short-sighted that they imagine that the cure for 
such degeneration lies in penalization, enforced con- 
finement and compulsory abstinence. A man suf- 
fering with alcoholism is a sick man, an invalid, a 
diseased person and his treatment as a criminal in- 
tensifies his illness, tends to accelerate his moral 
degeneration and being subjected to enforced 
abstinence, his system is apt to be abused by a reac- 
tion from compulsory virtue from which he may 
never recover. The man who has permitted his 
body to be saturated with alcohol, whose system is 
used to it and demands it, if suddenly deprived of 
it, is forced into a most deplorable and pitiable con- 
dition and subjection to the inhuman present 
method of handling the disease — deprivation and 
penalization — usually results in delirium, a "wet 
brain," prolonged psychosis or permanent insanity. 

Charles B. Towns who has had great success in 
treating unfortunates addicted to drugs and 
alcoholic habits, says, "It is exhaustion or lack of 
alcohol which first produces delirium in an alcoholic 
case, whether that exhaustion is due to the patient's 



522 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

inability to assimilate food or alcohol or whether it is 
due to the fact that, being under restraint, alcohol 
is denied him. In most cases there is no form of 
medication which can be successfully substituted for 
alcohol and unless definite medical help is pro- 
vided for the purpose of bringing about a physical 
change and thus avoiding delirium, no course re- 
mains safe except a long and very gradual reduction 
of alcoholic poisoning." 

The treatment of alcoholics should be a gradual 
unpoisoning of the body. Experts, moreover, are 
of the opinion that if alcoholics were treated intelli- 
gently as patients, even after they have reached the 
stages of the disease where the mind is becoming 
affected, "the number of supposedly permanent 
cases of insanity arising from alcoholic and drug 
addictions might be decreased by 75 per cent." 
Neglect and abuse of the chronic alcoholic is almost 
universal and often considered commendable and 
proper by a thoughtless society which, if it does 
depart from time honored indifference or censure* 
generally wallows in a still more dangerous attitude 
of incredible and continued error, ignoring or defy- 
ing science, research and fact. 

Many authorities believe to-day that a large per- 
centage of those unfortunates afflicted with insanity 
attributed to drugs and alcohol, were permitted to 
drift or were forced into this deplorable condition 
by improper diagnosis of their condition and its 
causes, followed naturally by improper medical 
treatment. A lack of definite or intelligent help in 
cases of chronic alcoholism is apt to bring about 
brain lesions which eventually result in hopeless in- 
sanity. It is well known that chronic alcoholism 
has been and continues to be the chief contributer to 



ALCOHOL 523 

the army of the insane, and in our asylums its pres- 
ence is notably frequent among the violent cases. 
The records show that 40 per cent, of the insane in 
the asylums of New York have a definite alcoholic 
history, and one-third of all the patients admitted to 
Bellevue Hospital in New York City are sent there 
by alcohol. 

Much intelligent work is being done in the treat- 
ment of tuberculosis but the victims of alcoholism 
receive, not curative methods or scientific considera- 
tion, but only condemnation and punishment, yet 
there are said to be forty alcoholics to every con- 
sumptive. Towns says, "By merely depriving an 
alcoholic of alcohol without eliminating his desire 
for it, we are likely to force him into something 
worse. Thus the attempts to enforce abstinence 
upon the man who wants to drink is not only in- 
effective but destructive." In his book on "Habits 
That Handicap" Towns tells us that the late Dr. 
Grinnell, Dean of the Vermont Medical College, 
after Vermont's adoption of prohibitory alcoholic 
legislation, sent out to the wholesale and retail stores 
throughout the state, that carried drugs as a part of 
their stock, a letter in which were enclosed blanks 
calling for specific information concerning the sale ot 
habit-forming drugs. Such was his personal stand- 
ing in the state that he received responses from all 
but two or three of those whom he addressed. The 
replies received indicated that the sales of drugs had 
swelled rapidly until they had reached a daily con- 
sumption equal to 1% grains of opium or its alka- 
loids, for every man, woman and child in the state. 
This vast increase in the use of dangerous drugs was 
attributed solely to the prohibition of the sale of 
alcoholic beverages. Here is a definite illustration 



524 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

to prove that the attempt to enforce abstinence upon 
the man who wants to drink is not only ineffective 
but destructive. Society, by laws of Prohibition, 
may or may not succeed in reducing the number of 
drunkards — underground drinking of bad spirits 
continued in Vermont as in other prohibition states 
and districts, in a vicious manner — but such laws are 
most likely to produce "drug fiends" and increase 
the number of lunatics and degenerates. 

Any person suffering with alcoholism is in an ab- 
normal physical and mental state and the only 
chance for cure lies in the reestablishment of 
natural conditions that make for health, the gradual 
unpoisoning of the abused system, the protection of 
the individual's self-respect and the regaining of his 
confidence in himself. Punishment of the alcoholics 
causes humiliation and breeds rebellion. Reform 
cannot come from condemnation and society's treat- 
ment of the drunkard arouses his resentment and 
not his repentance. 

It is amazing to note the general attitude of cer- 
tain Christian churches toward the alcoholic. A 
religious publication on "Temperance," which 
would be more rightly named "Prohibition," says 
that a man's first offense in partaking of too much 
alcohol "deserved severe punishment for he was en- 
tirely responsible for his condition, and when he 
deliberately surrendered his will and intelligence to 
alcohol, the fool and murderer, he accepted the 
chance of grave crimes." The scientist or sociolo- 
gist who preaches education, helpfulness and in- 
telligent mental and physical treatment in such 
cases, is substantially expressing, in a practical man- 
ner, the spirit of Christ whose mission was to save 
and not to condemn. Alcoholics should be given 



ALCOHOL 525 

definite treatment as sufferers of a disease caused by 
an unnatural mode of life, erroneous food with its 
improper nourishment and injurious thoughts. 
Alcoholism may result from an unstable nervous 
organism bequeathed by intemperate or abnormal 
ancestry or acquired by improper nourishment, 
poverty, overwork, physical abuse, grief or worry. 
Some systems crave excitement and exhilaration, 
and there are alcoholics who possess "many qualities 
of mind and temperament which the world admires 
and pronounces of the utmost value when rightly 
developed. ,, 

In these days of unnatural living with human 
activities and the pressure of existence out of har- 
mony with the biologic man, the so-called civilized 
and highly developed man inevitably searches and 
craves instinctively for exhilaration and stimulants 
to cope with the artificial social systems with which 
progress has enveloped him. Towns truly says, 
"We work beyond our strength and naturally feel 
the need of stimulants ; we play beyond our strength 
and as naturally need whips for our vitiated 
energies. All humanity turns in one way or an- 
other to artificial stimulants and while alcohol and 
narcotics are the worst among these, we cannot slur 
the fact that many who shun these agents as they 
would a pestilence, turn freely to milder but not 
altogether harmless stimulants, such as tea, coffee 
and tobacco." Dr. W. A. Evans has also said, "In 
order that no misunderstanding may arise, I should 
say that physiologists regard coffee, tea, tobacco 
and whiskey as drugs in the same sense as opium 
and cocaine. From coffee at the one end of the line 
to cocaine at the other, no pot has the right to call 
the kettle black." 



Theoretical Fuel Value of Alcoholic Beverages 



Beverage 
A. Distilled Liaoons 

Pure French Cognac Brandy 

Dry Martini Cocktail ' 

Gin 

Benedictine 

Chartreuse 

Curacoa 

Creme de Menthe 

Jamaica Rum, pure 

American Whiskey, genuine 

European Whiskey 







Alcohol 


Total Total Fuel 


Portion 


Quantity 


Per Cent. 
By Weight 


Extracts 
Per Cent. 


Value 
Calories 


Cordial Glass 
Cocktail " 


20 c.c. 
75 " 


55.90 
21.30 


.08 
6.21 


78 
131 


Cordial " 


50 " 
20 " 


30.00 
42.40 


5.50 
35.00 


116 

88 




20 " 


35.20 


35.40 


78 




20 " 


42.00 


37.90 


82 




20 " 


36.50 


28.28 


74 




50 " 


69.61 


.61 


245 




50 " 
50 « 


43.00 
39.00 


.70 


153 
137 



B. Wines and Ciders 








I. American Wines 








California, red 
California, white 


Claret Glass 


120 c.c. 


9.50 


California Port 
California Sherry 


Sherry " 


120 " 
30 " 


9.00 
14.81 
14.67 


2. European Wines 






Champagne, dry 
French, red (claret) 
French, white 


Champagne glass 
Claret " 


135 c.c. 

120 " 


10.42 
8.16 


Mosel and Saar, white 

Rhein wine, white 

Champagne 

Madeira 

Malaga 

Marsala 


Champagne " 


120 " 
120 " 
135 " 
30 " 
30 " 
30 " 


9.48 
7.36 
8.12 
9.50 
15.40 
11.93 
15.85 


Sherry 




30 " 
30 " 
30 " 


16.69 
17.45 
11.19 


Tokay, fresh 
3. Ciders 


" 


American, sweet 


Glass 


250 cc 


1.40 
5.17 


American, fermented 




250 '<•' 


C. Malt Liquors 








1. American 


- 






Ale 

Lager beer, bottled 


Glass 


250 cc. 
250 " 


6.02 


Lager beer, draft 
Porter 




250 " 
250 " 


4J87 
4.46 


2. European 








Ale 

Bock Beer 


Glass 


250 c.c. 

250 " 


5.27 
4.20 


Export Beer 




250 " 




Light Beer 




250 " 




Munich, heavy beer 




250 " 


4.54 


Pilsen, export beer 




250 " 


4.28 


Porter (Stout) 


" 


250 " 


5.16 



526 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 

The alcoholic with stomach inflamed and nervous 
system undermined; the tea sot, shrivelled and 
poisoned, with nerves keyed up to the snapping 
point ; the coffee toper, sallow and bilious, with blood 
poisoned and nerves adrift; the smoke fiend per- 
sistently loading his system with an intensely 
poisonous alkaloid, are all the result of the un- 
natural demands of life and the influence of an 
artificial environment — an existence for which the 
human constitution is not properly attuned. We 
may go further and say that a person may be un- 
duly exhilarated by faulty dieting; there is such a 
thing as food intoxication and "beef steak jags" 
with auto-intoxication, blood poisoning and uric 
acid troubles the "morning after." All forms of 
intoxication are due to violation of nature's laws 
of nourishment and adaptability. Our lives are not 
in harmony with nature, therefore, instead of 
"doping" ourselves to endeavor to do or withstand 
unnatural things which at times seem to be the line 
of least resistance and give the quickest ensuing 
benefit, we should learn what nature's laws can teach 
us. For the promotion of health in our peculiar, 
opposed setting, we should partake of nature's 
bounty, adopt and select from the "good things of 
life" only those which make for health and useful- 
ness — for in these are included happiness, success 
and longevity. 

Alcoholism and all other kindred vices of a 
strenuous and artificial social existence will be over- 
come only by education, by the upbuilding and de- 
velopment of the human body — physiologically and 
psychologically, by the elimination of injustice from 
the world where science and helpfulness will take the 
place of prejudice, ignorance and vengeance and by 



Theoretical Fuel Value 



Beverage 


Portion 


A. Distilled Liquors 




Pure French Cognac Brandy 


Cordial Glass 


Dry Martini Cocktail 

Gin 

Benedictine 


Cocktail " 


Cordial " 


Chartreuse 


« N 


Curacoa 


a a 


Creme de Menthe 


« « 


Jamaica Rum, pure 




American Whiskey, genuine 




European Whiskey 




B. Wines and Ciders 




1. American Wines 




California, red 


Claret Glass 


California, white 


«( <« 


California Port 


Sherry " 


California Sherry 


(i a 


2. European Wines 




Champagne, dry 


Champagne gla 


French, red (claret) 


Claret 


French, white 


a u 


Mosel and Saar, white 


a « 


Rhein wine, white 


« « 


Champagne 


Champagne " 


Madeira 


Sherry 


Malaga 


« « 


Marsala 


« « 


Port 


« a 


Sherry 


a a 


Tokay, fresh 


u a 


3. Ciders 




American, sweet 


Glass 


American, fermented 


«« 


C. Malt Liquors 




1. American 




Ale 


Glass 


Lager beer, bottled 


«< 


Lager beer, draft 


« 


Porter 


« 


2. European 




Ale 


Glass 


Bock Beer 


« 


Export Beer 


a 


Light Beer 


a 


Munich, heavy beer 


a 


Pilsen, export beer 


" 


Porter (Stout) 


(( 



ALCOHOL 527 

the gradual crowding out of poverty and fear. 
When the human race becomes adapted to the lif e it 
leads, by the development and perfecting of the 
nervous system, by knowledge of the laws of 
nourishment, with due consideration for strength, 
endurance and the wear and tear of the physical 
organism and by the adoption of sane "speed and 
pressure laws" of mental activity with prescribed 
periods for recuperation, then, with education show- 
ing the truth and eliminating poverty, will come a 
true balance in life where alcohol and kindred drugs 
will be used pathologically and judiciously for the 
virtue that is in them and not diabolically as pleasur- 
able drinks to drown the evils and thoughts of life. 
Education and natural living will eradicate alcohol 
and vice from society — prohibition laws never will. 
Education will produce a race of men and not 
weaklings who will handle masterfully the products 
of nature to their benefit, scorning to have their 
manhood enslaved to their detriment. 



528 MAN AND HIS HEALTH 



Bibliography 

The Works of Hippocrates Francis Adams 

Water, Its Origin and Use iVilliam Coles Finch 

Water Supplies Jamuel and Eric Rideal 

Elements of Water Bacteriology . . . Prescott and Winslow 
Clean Water and How to Get It. . .Allen Hazen 

The Human Mechanism Hough and Sedgwick 

Habits That Handicap Charles B. Towns 

Autology * E. R. Moras 

The Royal Road to Health £has. A. Tyrrell 

Efficient Living Ed. E. Purinton 

Side-stepping 111 Health .Edwin F. Bowers 

The Bacillus of Long Life Loudon M. Douglas 

The Prolongation of Life Elie MetchnikofF 

Milk, Its Nature and Composition. C. M. Aikman 
Modern Methods of Testing Milk. .Lucius L. Van Slyke 

Milk and Its Products H. H. Wing 

Dairy Chemistry Harry Snyder 

Practical Dairy Bacteriology JL W. Conn 

Milk and Its Relation to the Public 

Health Hygienic Laboratory 

Bulletin 
.The Care and Feeding of Children. L. E. Holt 

Alcohol and Society John Koren 

Alcohol, Its Effect on Mind and 

Body Edwin F. Bowers 

The Cyclopedia of Temperance. . . .Clarence T. Wilson 
The Anti-Saloon League Year Book.E. H. Cherrington 

Alcohol and the Human Body Horsley and Sturge 

Drink and Be Sober Vance Thompson 

The Liquor Problem in Russia. . . .W. E. Johnson 

General Statistics of Cities Dept. of Commerce 

Food Values Edwin A. Locke 

Nutritional Physiology P. G. Stiles 

Nutrition Charles E. Sohn 



MAN AND HIS HEALTH 529 



The Drink Problem of To-day T. N. Kelynack 

Modern Facts About Alcohol C. F. Stoddard 

The Science of Nutrition Graham Lusk 

How to Live Fisher and Fiske 

What to Eat and Why G. C. Smith 

Health Through Rational Diet. . . .Arnold Lorand 
Foods and Their Adulterations. . . .Harvey W. Wiley 
The Influence of Caffeine on 

Efficiency H. L. Hollingsworth 

Old Age Deferred Arnold Lorand 

Hygiene For The Worker W. H. Tolman 

The Science of Business Building. .A. F. Sheldon 

The Individual and Society William A. Fairburn 

The Nature of Man Elie Metchnikoff 

Materia Medica Pharmacology. . . -Walter A. Bastedo 
Pharmacology and Therapeutics. . .Arthur R. Cushny 

Etc., Etc. 

To all, from whose works I have drawn in the 
preparation of this volume, I acknowledge my in- 
debtedness. Txr A t-, 

W . A. b . 



Index 

ALCOHOL 



PAGE 

Accidents and Alcohol 449 

Adulteration of Alcoholic Drinks 401 

Advertisements — Fraudulent 404 

Alcohol and Accidents 449 

Alcohol as a Cure for Colds 438 

Alcohol and Athletics 425 

Alcohol and Crime 452 

Alcohol Decreases Resistance to Disease 442 

Alcohol Even in Moderation Not Conducive to Health . . . 440 

Alcohol Given to Children and Its Results 473 

Alcohol in Relation to Climatic Conditions 481 

Alcohol and the Soldier 490 

Alcoholism and Suicide 456 

Alcoholism at Times the Result of Defective Stock 478 

Alcoholism a Vice of Certain Races '. . . . 413 

Alcoholic Experiments on Animals 474 

Alcoholism — Statistical Investigations Into Causes of . . . 461 

Alcoholic "Tolerance" Varies With Individuals 489 

Animals — Alcoholic Experiments on 474 

Athletics and Alcohol 425 

Beer 388 

Bevo — A Temperance Beer 411 

Brain Most Affected by Alcohol 427 

Brandy 394 

British War Posters 494-495 

Canteen System in Industry 456 

Cell Life — Influence of Alcohol on 478 

Children — Alcohol Given to and Its Results 473 

Climatic Conditions — Alcohol in Relation to 481 

Colds — Alcohol as a Cure for 438 

Commercial Division of Alcoholic Drinks 388 

Comparative Consumption of Spirits, Wines, Beers, etc.. . 395 

Consumption of Spirits, Wines, Beers, etc. — Comparative 395 

Cordials and Liqueurs 395 

Crime and Alcohol 452 

Defective Stock — Alcoholism at Times the Result of . . . . 478 

Digestion — Effect of Alcohol on ,,.... 436 



532 INDEX 

ALCOHOL— (Continued) 

PAGE 

Dignity and Poise Affected by Alcohol 429 

Distilled Spirits 392 

Economic Waste of Alcohol Consumption 398 

Education the Solution of Alcoholism 520 

Effect of Alcohol on Digestion 436 

Effect of Alcohol on Endurance 420 

Effect of Parental Alcoholism on Offspring 463 

Effect of Alcohol on the Individual 416 

Fraudulent Advertisements 404 

French Campaign Against Alcohol 459 

French Soldiers' Warning 497 

Fuel Value of Alcoholic Beverages 527 

Gin 394 

Habit-Forming Tendencies of Alcohol 458 

Industry — Canteen System in 456 

Inefficiency Caused by Alcohol 448 

Influence of Alcohol on Cell Life 478 

Insanity Caused by Alcohol — Much 435 

Insanity — Intoxication Analogous to 439 

Intoxication Analogous to Insanity 439 

Kinds of Alcohol 505 

Liqueurs and Cordials 395 

Medicinal Use of Alcohol 431 

Miscellaneous Alcoholic Drinks 395 

Mortality Due to Alcohol 447 

Mortality in Relation to Occupation 445 

Much Insanity Caused by Alcohol 435 

Navy — American 499 

Parental Alcoholism — Effects on Offspring 463 

Patent Medicines . . 385 

Poise and Dignity Affected by Alcohol 429 

Prohibition Movement 507 

Prohibition Not the Solution of Alcoholism 515 

Rum 394 

Russian Vodka 501 

Scientific Study of the Effect of Alcohol on the Human 

Machine 420 

Soldier — Alcohol and the 490 

Soldiers* Warning 497 

Statistical Investigations into Causes of Alcoholism 461 

Statistics Showing Ages at Which Alcoholism Begins. ... 461 

Suicide and Alcoholism 456 

Temperance Beer — Bevo 41 1 






INDEX 533 

ALCOHOL— (Continued) 

v y PAGE 

Theoretical Fuel Value of Alcoholic Beverages 527 

"Tolerance" — Alcoholic Varies with Individuals 489 

Various Kinds of Alcohol 505 

Vodka 394-501 

Vodka — Russian 501 

Whiskey 393 

Wine 391 

FRUIT JUICES 

Effect of Fruit Juices on the System 367 

Fruit Juices Adaptable to Tropical Consumption 370 

Fruit Juice Adulteration 372 

MILK 

Action and Nature of Milk Bacteria 202 

Adulteration of Milk 280 

Albumen— Milk 159 

Albuminoids of Milk 158 

Araka 294 

Ass's Milk 134 

Bacteria in Buttermilk and Sour Milk 301 

Bacterial Content of Milk 193 

Bacterial Milk Standards 197 

Bacteriology of Milk 176 

Breed of Cows Affect Milk 146 

Bulgarian Yogourt 295 

Buttermilk 300 

Buttermilk and Sour Milk — Bacteria in 301 

Carbonated Milk 269 

Casein — Milk 158 

Certified Milk 237 

Classification of Dealers' Milks 200 

Colostrum Milk 154 

Composition of Cow's Milk 137 

Condensed Milk 166 

Conditions Influencing the Quality of Milk 153 

Cream 164 

Dadhi 295 

Diphtheria — Scarlet Fever — Typhoid 189 

Effect of Environment on Bacteria 181 

Environment — Effect on Bacteria 181 

Evaporated Cream 175 



534 INDEX 

MILK — (Continued) 

page 

Fat— Milk 156 

Food Value of Cow's Milk 163 

Form, Size and Multiplication of Bacteria 178 

Frozen Milk 176 

Gases of Milk 163 

Goat's Milk 135 

Grading of Milk 226 

Infants Milk Depots and Mothers' Feeding 254 

Influences of the Period of Lactation Upon Cow's Milk. . 149 

Inspected Milk 251 

Intestinal Disorders 192 

Keffir 289 

Koumiss 291 

Leben 294 

Matzoon 294 

Milk Preservatives 270 

Mothers' Feeding and Infants Milk Depots 254 

Multiplication of Bacteria, Size and Form 178 

Nature and Action of Milk Bacteria 202 

Pasteurization of Milk 208 

Peptonized Milk 269 

Powder— Milk 175 

Relation of Milk Bacteria to the Human System 185 

Salts of Milk 161 

Scarlet Fever — Typhoid — Diphtheria 189 

Serum— Milk 156 

Sheep's Milk 135 

Size, Form and Multiplication of Bacteria 178 

Sour Milk and Buttermilk — Bacteria in 301 

Sour Milk— A Healthful Food Drink 302 

Soured Milks 285 

Specific Gravity of Cow's Milk 142 

State Laws and Standards Regarding Composition of 

Milk and Cream 144 

Sterilized Milk 224 

Sugar— -Milk 160 

Tuberculosis 186 

Typhoid — Scarlet Fever — Diphtheria 189 

U. S. Official Standards for Milk, Cream, etc 143 

Use of Milk 311 

Variation in the Composition of Cow's Milk 151 

Variation of Time Between Milkings 152 

Yogourt — Bulgarian 295 






INDEX 535 

OILS 

PAGE 

Animal Edible Oils 357 

Medicinal Mineral Oils 360 

Mineral Oils — Medicinal 360 

Vegetable Edible Oils 353 

SOUPS AND EXTRACTS 

Soups and Extracts 374 

TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 

Adulteration — Tea 321 

Analysis of Coffee 322 

Caffeine Effect — Hollings worth Tests 334 

Caffeine and Tannic Content of Tea 319 

Chocolate and Cocoa 326 

Cocoa and Chocolate 326 

Coffee — Analysis of 322 

Coffee and Tea— Use of 323 

Comparative Use of Coffee and Tea in Various Countries 325 

Effect of Caffeine Drinks Upon the System 328 

Effect of Caffeine 346 

Effect of Caffeine on Progeny 347 

Effect of Drugs and Stimulants 316 

Effect of Drugs Varies with Individuals 348 

Food Value in Coffee and Tea — No 348 

Hollingsworth Tests of Caffeine Effect 334 

Inconsistency of Present Prohibition Tendencies 349 

Mate 328 

Mechanical Tests to Determine the Effect of Caffeine. . . . 333 

Nature of Certain So-called Temperance Drinks 316 

No Food Value in Coffee and Tea 348 

Sources of Caffeine 319 

Tannic and Caffeine Content of Tea 319 

Tea — Adulteration 321 

Tea and Coffee — Use of 323 

Use of Coffee and Tea 323 

WATER 

Aeration 104 

Artesian Wells 58 

Basis of all Beverages 8 

Boiling and Freezing Temperatures of Salt Water 27 

Chemical Analysis of Water 24 



536 INDEX 

WATER— (Continued) 

PAGE 

Classification of Water Supplies 36 

Common Origin of all Water Supply 31 

Consumed by American Cities — Quantity of Water 84 

Deep Wells 57 

Diviner of Water, etc 65 

Effect of Too Much Water 12 

Elements in Ancient Lore 17 

Freezing and Boiling Temperatures of Salt Water 27 

Hardness and Softness of Water 38 

Hot Water as a Therapeutic Agent 15 

Human Body Like a Steam Boiler 4 

Human System — Water in Relation to the 2 

Impurities in Water 47 

Lakes 76 

Meals— Water With 14 

Mechanical Filtration 88 

Medicinal Properties — Mineral Waters 117 

Mineral and Thermal Springs 62 

Mineral Waters — Medicinal Properties 117 

Municipally Owned Water Systems — Statistics of Large 

American Ill 

Necessary for Bodily Functions 11 

Origin of all Water Supply — Common 31 

Oxygen in Water 29 

Proper Water Balance 13 

Pure Water an Ideal Substance 31 

Purification 97 

Purity — Rain Water 32 

Quantity of Water Consumed by American Cities 84 

Rainfall 34 

Rain Water and Its Purity 32 

Right Drinking — Law of 5 

Rivers 68 

Sand Filtration 88 

Sea, The Source and Ultimate Destination of Land 

Waters 28 

Sedimentation Filtration 88 

Shallow Wells 54 

"Soft Drink" Impurities 9 

Softness and Hardness of Water 38 

Solvent — Water as a 30 

Springs 59 



INDEX 537 

WATER— (Continued) 

PAGE 

Statistics of Large American Municipally Owned Water 

Systems Ill 

Steam 29 

Sterilization 104 

Supplies of Water — Classification 36 

Temperature of Water 35 

Therapeutic Agent — Hot Water as a 15 

Thermal and Mineral Springs 62 

Typhoid in the United States Compared with Europe ... 113 

Ultra- Violet Rays 100 

Wells — Artesian 58 

Wells-^Deep 57 

Wells— Shallow 54 



538 INDEX 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. PAGE 

1 Density Curve of Water 26 

2 A Shallow Well Badly Located in a Farm Yard 55 

3 A Bad Arrangement of Shallow Well and Cesspool. . 56 

4 Diagram Showing the Cause of the Rise of Water 

(from the Lower Green Sand) in Artesian Wells 

in the Paris Basin 59 

5 Geological Section Showing the Different Kinds of 

Wells and Springs, Etc 61 

6 Typhoid Fever Deaths Per 100,000 1887-1909 

Lawrence, Mass 74 

7 Cleveland, Ohio, Typhoid Fever Deaths Per 100,000 

population by years 1873 to 1910 78 

8 Mortality Chart — Typhoid Fever — Milwaukee, Wis. 81 

9 Typhoid Fever Death Rates in Chicago, 111., by 

Years 1881 to 1910 83 

10 Typhoid Fever Deaths Per 100,000 1896-1909, 

Albany, N. Y 90 

11 City of Pittsburg, Pa., Typhoid Fever Deaths Per 

100,000 Population by Years 93 

12 Curve Showing Relationship Between Bacterial Re- 

duction and Time of Filming 96 

13 Showing Seasonal Distribution of Typhoid Fever, 

Albany, N. Y., for nine-year period before and 
nine-year period after Filtration 114 

14 Typhoid Epidemic — Scarlet Fever Epidemic — Out- 

break of Diphtheria 189 

15 Typhoid Epidemic — Stamford, Conn 191 

16 Parabolic Curves for Bacterial Counts 201 

17 Time and Temperature for Milk Pasteurization. ... 218 

18 Sales Value of Milk Based on Its Chemical Com- 

position 235 

19 Relative Mortality from Gastro-Intestinal Disease 

in Breast-fed and Bottle-fed Infants 262 

20 Caffeine Diuresis in a Rabbit 329 

21 Respiration of a Rabbit Accelerated by Caffeine. . . . 330 

22 Effect of Caffeine on Speed of Typewriting 338 

23 Increase in the Per Capita Consumption of all 

Alcoholic Liquors During the Last Fifty-three 
Years in the United States 396 

24 Diagram Showing the Consumption of Alcoholic 

Beverages in the U. S. A 397 

25 Effect of Alcohol on Memory 422 



INDEX 539 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— (Continued) 

FIG. PAGE 

26 Moderate Drinkers and Abstainers in Major League 

Baseball 425 

27 Total Expenditures in Alcohol and Milk in Seven 

London Hospitals 432 

28 Expenditure in Alcohol (Cents per Patient) London 

Metropolitan Fever Hospitals 433 

29 Diagram to Show the Retarding Effect of Alcohol 

Upon Digestion 437 

30 A Table Showing the Retarding Effect of Alcohol 

Upon Digestion 437 

31 Diagram Made from the Investigations of Ulbrecht 

of Dresden giving the Percentage of Accidents Oc- 
curring on Each Day of the Week 449 

32 Chart of Bodily Injuries on Different Days of the 

Week 453 

33 Diagram Showing the Experience of the Berlin Gen- 

eral Electric Society with a Tea Canteen in Addi- 
tion to Their Alcoholic Canteen 457 

84 Diagram Showing the Effect of Alcoholism — Inebria- 
tion — in Mothers Upon Their Offspring (Based 
Upon Investigations of Sullivan) : . . . 464 

35 A Record of Twenty Families 467 

36 Diagram Showing Effect of Alcohol in Checking the 

Growth of the Torula (One of the Simplest Forms 

of Cell Life) 479 

87 Diagram Showing Admissions to Hospitals in India 

for Alcoholism 484 



